Return to the sixties with a modern Miss Dior

Chez Dior, we returned to the sixties and Marc Bohan in the brand's last show that spoke of 1967, the year of the birth of the house's first ready-to-wear collection, Miss Dior.

A youthful and cheerful collection that celebrated the revolutionary impact of the 60s on women and culture in general. An era when fashion ignored the limits of high fashion and looked to the streets for a new modern vernacular.

The result, fall 2024 clothing built for women of action, worn by a cast that quickly paraded around a massive custom-built exhibition space; ingeniously built over the Bassin Octagonal, or main pond of the Tuileries Gardens.

At first glance, an understated fashion statement, from Dior's women's creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, born in Italy, with double-faced cashmere cabanas, fitted A-line dresses, knee-length skirts and classic trench coats. Although many feature hand-painted graffiti examples of the phrase Miss Dior, in two-inch-wide font on dozens of looks.

Made for busy women and anchored in fantastic new patent leather cut out flat sole boots with gold straps and buckles, gold ball heels or wide patent leather knee high boots finished with rhinestone ankle chains.

“In my opinion, Marc Bohan's influence and talent is often underestimated. Maybe because he came right after Yves Saint Laurent and Monsieur Dior? But Bohan had a profound influence on fashion and at Dior, where he created his first ready-to-wear. That was a revolutionary move in a house dedicated to haute couture for over 20 years at that time. Hey! In a sense, she was a feminist, long before women started burning bras,” Chiuri insisted with brave Roman emphasis in a pre-show trailer.

A collection that also referenced Bohan's innovative strategy of working with original contemporary visual artists and incorporating their ideas into his collections. Chiuri's other big inspiration was Gabriella Crespi, a uniquely talented Italian who collaborated with Bohan, who commissioned her to make curvy tables and lamps for the French brand's boutiques. Some of them are still in Dior's famous archive, although it is difficult to locate works by Crespi, who often worked in bamboo. By definition, a fragile material.

Your ideas seen in the color palette; Never before have we seen so many looks in shades of beige, sand and bamboo at a Dior show, even if they were adorned with red checks, signature gray and faded denim blue.

And in Dior's latest magnificent set, courtesy of Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, who developed eight towering statues of bamboo, cane and raffia, suggesting princesses, samurai girls and empowered Amazons. Presented in a circle 20 meters in diameter. On the walls, enormous paintings of mythical warrior women from Rajasthan, suggesting “a versatile femininity, reactivating that key moment of creative freedom of which Miss Dior is the emblem,” Chiuri argued in her program notes.

The other key element was the scarf, a key element in Maria Grazia's own wardrobe and at Dior. The designer found so many in the archive that she ended up commissioning an entire book about the accessory. Entitled dior Scarves It will be released this spring.

“My mother always wore scarves and so did I when I was a child. My grandmother even wore them in the fields! she laughed.

Creating drama at the show with a remix of France's favorite runway song Je t'aime moi non plus, by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, when the action arrived at night. cheetah print coats and jackets; postmodern flapper dresses with fringes and beautiful beaded columns, again with a touch of Crespi's designs.

In short, a succinct statement from the designer in Paris with the most coherent game plan.