While Donald Trump may have had his day in Manhattan court on Monday, Maria Grazia Chiuri owned the night at the Brooklyn Museum. For its Fall 2024 ready-to-wear collection, Dior chose New York, which has maintained a close link with haute couture and the French fashion brand since its inception. The event and the collection managed to channel its Parisian character. Je Ne Sais Quoi across the bold artistic edge of New York using Marlene Dietrich as a muse, using each city's famous landmarks as prints, artistic duo Claire Fontaine, Brooklyn-born, Rome-based artist Suzanne Santoro, Yoko Ono on the soundtrack from the catwalk, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon in person and the sounds of legendary club DJ Justin Strauss in an evening that oozes cool subversion, with a feminist undertone.
Backstage, Chiuri appeared relaxed and pleasant as she met with a group of fashion press just after taking the moment to sing Happy Birthday to a member of the Dior design studio, complete with cake. The brand had just informed the press about the importance of Dior in New York and Marlene Dietrich, who was part of the house's early days.
Apparently, Maria Grazia found archival images of Marlene Dietrich, a lifelong customer, and the looks she bought from the first debut collection in 1947. It was not the New Look, but rather gray wool suits. The way Dietrich was able to alternate the masculine style of the 1930s and 1940s with the hyperglamor of a movie goddess intrigued Chiuri.
The collection paid tribute to the intertwining of the two great fashion capitals. Pret-a-Porter is generally considered a product of the 1960s, but Dior anticipated himself in 1948 when he opened a separate company, Christian Dior New York, Inc., to reproduce and adapt his Haute Couture designs. to a more pragmatic American customer. avoiding total Parisian elegance.
In fact, the American garment manufacturing industry was powerful at the time and had the most advanced and efficient techniques for making clothing and sportswear. Legendary Harper's Bazaar fashion editor Carmel Snow was also reportedly the one who coined the term “the new look.”
Chiuri was elated at the first ready-to-wear show during her tenure. “This was a dream I didn't imagine was possible, especially within the Brooklyn Museum, with a collection that celebrates the strong relationship between New York and Dior,” she said before the show.
Dietrich, who lived in New York after World War II until 1963, was certainly an exciting character in the Dior archives for the artistic director to explore. “She was an actress who understood the power of fashion and used the look to define herself, mixing the masculine and the feminine, sportswear and ready-to-wear,” Chiuri explained about the close collaboration between Christian Dior himself and the mysterious German. -born actress.
In addition, decidedly Dietrich touches appeared in the collection through jackets influenced by those first purchases, looks of gray suits, often embroidered with house motifs such as stars, flowers and bees to imitate brooches, riffs on tuxedo looks, even complete with blouses. hat in hand, but also mermaid dresses in velvet and with fringes and rhinestones, often open and worn over underwear.
“But there is another important New York chapter at Dior, the era of John Galliano, synonymous with Sex and the city period, with slip dresses that were worn with a coat on top. “It's this kind of attitude and idea that there is in New York when I come here, especially when I was young and I saw these girls with this look. It's different from Europe. There's a freer approach to fashion here,” she explained.
This also translates into combining sportswear with more elegant ideas.
“New York impressed me with its strong presence of sportswear; the woman with sneakers and heels in her bag. It was an important part of our imagination. Mixing formal dresses and sportswear, it is a city where everyone walks, so the functionality is very strong. It's my idea of New York,” he continued, adding, “It's also an influence on my style; “I like sportswear and denim, but I also like embroidered pieces.”
Perhaps the most progressive way the designer expressed the sportswear message was through a series of elegant, barely-there silk fabrics on languid, form-fitting dresses. “I like to try to work the Dior shape in knitwear because it is a different result and attitude, recreating the same shape in another material,” he offered. Walkable platforms garnered most attention.
The collection also references a well-known Bert Stern image of Marilyn Monroe with the actress wearing an open-back Dior dress, taken from behind with her face turned toward the camera. This manifested itself in open-back, off-the-shoulder styles on shirting dresses and blouses.
At a particularly opportune time. Chiuri unearthed an archival scarf designed by Alexandre Sache during Marc Bohan's years at Dior that depicts the American and French flags. The print was transformed for this show into an oversized sports outfit, in keeping with another New York institution: Hip Hop music. The model was also made with the Dior logo print.
Showing each city was a series of prints depicting a New York skyline complete with Lady Liberty, the infamous gift from the French seen on everything from denim, dresses and handbags to the Eiffel Tower appearing on the back of a silver anorak coat.
Chiuri noted that he was happy to be in the city. “I feel like there's a strong sense of community in New York City, in this museum, with the other fashion designers and how they know each other.”
The designer brought in her community of creatives, including Claire Fontaine's Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill, the Palermo-focused feminist artist who also designed the Fall/Winter 2020 exhibition space. Speaking to Fashion Network ahead of the show, they explained the design of the space of the show party.
Pointing out the neon hand sculptures rising above the space, Carnevale explained the art. “The light sculptures are made from drawings by the hands of the seamstresses, curators and women involved in the production,” she said.
“We created this feminist gesture, the work 'Towards a New Expression' by Santoro based on the groundbreaking writings of Carla Lonzi. We reproduce the vagina with our hands in a way that can be seen and symbolizes women affirmatively, not in the absence of the male sex , but in an empowering and positive way,” she continued by noting that the linoleum floor covering in the room was based on the distressed and weathered tiles seen in Palermo.
The duo, whose work “Foreigners Everywhere” influenced the title of this year's Venice Biennale, were also instrumental in Santoro's presence in Chiuri's life and at the museum. “Maria Grazia has some of Suzanne's works; we presented them and it was love at first sight. She convinced Suzanne to return to Brooklyn after a long time to have an exhibition here,” Carnevale added.
Thus, guests who stayed to witness Gordon's electrifying live performance after the show and dance to Strauss's retro-modernized soundtrack until midnight were able to view Santoro's exhibit on the first floor, as well as peruse the 'Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of The Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys exhibition as they strolled into the night, still throbbing to create a true New York moment.
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