Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of Dior women’s lines, dreamed up this spring-summer 2024 ready-to-wear collection starting from a reflection on the meaning of the present. A present in which past and future must coexist simultaneously.
In this convergency, open to many interpretations, she continues to explore the relationship between femininity and feminism, driven by the conviction that fashion has, more than ever, a responsibility to help women realize their worth and express their differences. She is therefore interested in all the rebels who have asserted their independence in the face of a masculine world and challenged its system.
These include witches, custodians of the knowledge of the mother-goddess, who pass on the science of plants and respect the time of nature. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s creations for Dior reveal a medieval style, an architectural silhouette, where the jacket is of masculine mode. Certain fabrics bear witness to a materiality, a memory of time and an in-depth knowledge of the work of Italian artist Alberto Burri; tears, lacerations, and combustions become a constitutive, performative element of the garment.
The colors are those of ash, chamomile, and love potions. The Mille-fleurs, emblematic of Dior, is transformed into a dark motif, a contrasting floral X-ray. Phases of the moon, suns announcing the seasons, medicinal herbs, and fantastical animals are all part of this iconic design, and of the embroidery also at times.
Knitwear plays a tremendous role: it accompanies and caresses the curves of the body, enveloping without constricting, it is warm, sexy. A very light, metallic sweater alludes to chainmail.
The monumental, immersive NOT HER art piece, by Elena Bellantoni, perpetuates this refusal of all the clichés that confine women to predefined categories. The video installation, occupying all the walls of the show’s scenography, uses the analog split-flap device: we see a succession of female figures (including the artist herself) reworked by Elena Bellantoni, in a pop spirit, using imagery from sexist adverts and counterpoint phrases to respond to the dominant stereotype: “it’s not her, she’s no longer all that”.
This new collection thus restores the idea that the body/clothing relationship is set in the context of the times and not in the time of one day or nostalgia.
