(Paris) Down with heels, linings and frills: the Dior woman is in extreme purity inspired by antique statues and lightened to bring more comfort, in the haute couture collection presented Monday in Paris.
A long white woolen dress with a matching cape opens the parade at the Rodin Museum, in a decor designed by the Italian artist Marta Roberti, who combines in her drawings animals, goddesses, self-portraits and fragments of wild landscapes.
The silhouette is vertical, the line clean and the colors refined: white, black, beige, gold and silver. The hair is straight, squares or back braids.
“This clean line actually hides a remarkable complexity. It was a work of subtraction. I wanted to remove the sheath, the lining, these elements that characterize constructed couture outfits, “said Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of women’s collections at Dior, to AFP.
She quotes Christian Dior, who believed that the antique works and his dresses had in common “an apparent simplicity”.
“It fits perfectly with the concept of couture,” she says.
Lightening the construction without losing the shape was “the most important challenge” of this collection, explains the Italian stylist.
The emblematic silhouette of New Look by Christian Dior, structured by the fitted bar jacket, is revisited in this collection in several ways.
The jacket is unlined, “light and comfortable”. For the first time, it was made “in stretch brocade fabric” to allow “movement like in sportswear”.
The bar silhouette is evoked in a white top worn with trousers and a cape short on the front and long on the back.
A form declined in jacket and coat is structured with pleats designed under the chest, evoking classic statues.
Flat sandals, with marked cutouts, accentuate the imagination of Antiquity.
Pleating, another element of Dior’s DNA, is present on the sleeves of men’s jackets.
In addition to the essential dresses, the collection offers several separate pieces, allowing them to be mixed, and builds “a whole personalized wardrobe”, underlines Maria Grazia Chiuri.
These include shorts that can be seen under transparent golden capes embroidered with pearls or white blouses.
“There is no blueprint in haute couture,” the designer assures, adding that a white blouse is not “considered a key piece” in this field.
An approach that brings a pragmatic dimension. “This collection is not made for the red carpet as we imagine it today,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri.
“It’s work that is not necessarily seen by others, but especially by the one who wears the garment,” she concludes.
