What meaning can a designer find in his work when the news is divided between war, pandemic and repeated crises? This question is all the more significant at the time of haute couture fashion shows, this tailor-made fashion aimed at an elite. During fashion week held from July 4 to 7 in Paris, several designers wanted to offer virtuous collections, capable of delivering a political message, creating jobs, or simply inspiring people to dream.
Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Dior femme, took up her position in 2015, “at the time of the Bataclan attacks”. “Since then, six intense years have followed one another”believes the designer, who draws a parallel with Christian Dior: the couturier launched his house on the ruins of the Second World War, with “the desire to be reborn”. Wishing to offer through this collection “a positive idea of the future”Maria Grazia Chiuri focused on the tree of life, this representation which, through engravings, paintings or embroidery, symbolizes renewal and the strength of existence.
She went to draw these trees from different folklores, from Eastern Europe to India, to develop a solid and singular graphic language. A profusion of branches, trunks and roots embroidered in cotton, silk or rope threads unfold on a wide range of rustic or more dressy dresses, like the very beautiful carmine dress which closes the show, covered with stems blonde waves. The floral motif is also embroidered on the walls of the tent erected in the gardens of the Rodin Museum; the scenography was imagined by the Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko and produced by the Chanakya embroidery workshops, located in Bombay, India. “Our professions do not save lives, but Dior has the power to support small businesses, workshops, to provide work and hope”emphasizes Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Beauty in its diversity
At Valentino, the show is thought of as a manifesto: it’s about showing beauty, but in its diversity. Pierpaolo Piccioli organized a wild casting to recruit models for his collection. Among them, many black women, with different bodies (more plump than average, depigmented…), men in clothes traditionally perceived as feminine. A few days before his fashion show presented exceptionally in Rome, on the steps of the famous Place d’Espagne, on July 8, off schedule, the Italian designer explained his approach in the Parisian salons of Place Vendôme: “From a clothing point of view, couture hasn’t changed much in recent decades. What changes is the way it is staged. In Italy, where xenophobia is still present, parading around thirty black girls in a place as emblematic as the Spanish Steps sends a strong message. » Pierpaolo Piccioli assumes his taste for a couture wardrobe “a bit cliché, with its feathers, its embroidery, its play on volumes”. The virtuosity of the workshops makes it possible to create capes as light as a veil which, once in motion, unfold like the feathers of a peacock; dresses where the proliferation of sequins and the movement of the fabric draw a shower of shooting stars; or even a bubble coat like an explosion of roses.
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