a fall parade in New York

Until around ten years ago, fashion experienced a spring break: after the fashion weeks of fall-winter collections presented in February and March, we (almost) no longer heard of fashion shows until the start of the school year. september. Those days are over. Despite an unfavorable economic context, the major luxury houses are maintaining their supernumerary shows, which they deploy between April and June, most often abroad.

Some choose surprising destinations because they are not linked to the world of luxury, like Chanel, which, after having invested in Dakar and Manchester, will show in Marseille on May 2. Others prefer to target spectacular architectural sites: Vuitton will present collections in Shanghai (April 18), then in Barcelona (May 23). For its “fall 2024” collection, Dior, which kicked off the spring fashion shows on April 15, chose a city that resonates with its history and allows it to target an important market: New York.

The United States played a determining role in the success of Christian Dior from his first Parisian show, on February 12, 1947: after seeing the collection composed of tight-waisted jackets and opulent skirts, Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of American magazine Harper’s Bazaarwould have congratulated the designer for his unique silhouettes which offered a “new look”, or “new look” in original version. The expression will enter the annals of fashion and will actively contribute to the brand’s influence throughout the world, the New Look becoming a synonym for the sartorial aesthetic revival of the post-war period.

Christian Dior loved the United States which reciprocated him: in September 1947, he received the fashion prize from the Neiman Marcus department store; he took the opportunity to travel the country, and imagine models that he called “Texas”, “Chicago” or “Mystery of New York”. The Big Apple particularly fascinates him; in his Memoirs, he writes: “My enthusiasm was boundless; I had forgotten my Old Continent. » In October 1948, he opened a store on the V^e Avenue.

Seventy-five years later, the situation has not changed much. Dior still has a store on the V^e Avenue, two blocks from the historic site. In March 2024, the artistic director of the women’s collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who continues to reinterpret the New Look each season, in turn received the Neiman Marcus Prize. And also draws on the energy of New York to design new models: “I grew up watching films shot there, following its fashion week which offered more sportswear outfits, different from what was done in Europe, explains the 60-year-old designer. This city is a dream for me. And it is intrinsically linked to the history of Dior. »

Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty

If Christian Dior was fascinated by skyline of Manhattan, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s attention is rather directed towards the Brooklyn Museum. This institution, which hosted the exhibition “Dior, couturier du rêve” in 2021, has a large collection devoted to feminist art, the designer’s favorite subject. This is where the “fall 2024” fashion show takes place, under the central rotunda, in a vast space decorated by the artistic duo Claire Fontaine, composed of Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill: a series of neon lights of different colors reproduce hands whose fingers come together to form a diamond.

This gesture, symbolizing the female sex, was born during feminist demonstrations in the second half of the 1970s. “Having put this sex, as desired as it was unknown, in the public place was an act of rare visual violence, because materializing it was also a way of exorcising it, of freeing oneself from it like slavery, of freeing a secret of the darkness that surrounds us »explains Claire Fontaine.

On the podium surrounded by the 800 guests, nothing radical, on the contrary: in line with her work for eight years at Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri presents a pragmatic collection, capable of meeting all the needs of the day, from tailoring to from evening dresses to sportswear. The dresses are elegant, in crushed velvet draped in the back or embroidered with strips of shimmering sequins; the suits evoke the heritage of Christian Dior, flared at the hips, embroidered with his favorite codes (the bee, the clover, the stars), sometimes enhanced with a tie. Pretty double-breasted leather or woolen cloth coats oversized constitute sure values ​​of a chic and sober wardrobe.

Two illustrations representing the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, printed on bags, on the back of coats or on sweatshirts, recall the context of the parade. Apart from this nod, the main source of inspiration for this collection does not really have anything to do with New York, since it is Marlene Dietrich, a major client of the house, whose “the ability to use clothing to define one’s image” seduced Maria Grazia Chiuri.

In any case, this masculine and glamorous wardrobe, elegant and relaxed, should touch the many customers present at the show, already dressed from head to toe by the designer, who has, since 2016, quadrupled the department’s turnover. women’s clothing by Dior. In these troubled times, it seems logical to focus on stability.