Animals go wild on the Paris runway
From Josephine Baker’s 1920s shimmer at Dior to man-made taxidermy at Schiaparelli, Haute Couture Fashion Week delivers a spectacle on all fronts.
While it might be post pandemic boom times at Paris Haute Couture this season with its hefty schedule of high jewellery presentations and full lineup of shows, IRL, they have been tempered by an air of thoughtful, quiet luxury, contrasted with head turning fashion.
At the Dior show, presented within the grounds of the Musee Rodin on the Left Bank, Maria Grazia Chiuri presented 60 exquisite exits that were as stealth as they were stylish. She is the first female designer at Dior, a fact not to be forgotten, as it fuels so much of what she creates and how she approaches the task of redefining the Dior legacy. For the spring/summer 2023 couture collection she was inspired by - or rather guided by – Josephine Baker, the amazingly talented African-American singer and dancer who came to live in Paris in the 1920s, later taking French citizenship, and who coincidentally included Dior in her epic wardrobe.
For the staging of the show, Grazia Chiuri once again (they first worked together in 2020) collaborated with the African-American artist Mickalene Thomas whose work thoughtfully explores femininity too and power, creating a set featuring glittering, giant, collaged portraits of women. A fierce line-up of entertainers, actors, TV stars and activists gazed out from the walls of the show space, including Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge and more, while Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki watched front row.
And while the collection was sprinkled with some epic razzamatazz showbiz shimmying, to be expected with Josephine Baker in the house, the minuscule micro beads, burnished gold laminate and lush caviar crushed velvet were accompanied by a slew of austere wool tailoring that gave the whole a poignant resonance in Herringbone, slate and Dior grey.
Following last season’s folk romance, inspired by the Ukrainian tree of life and in support of Ukraine - this had an equally relevant message: one of bravery, enlightenment, free speech and a free spirit at its core. Entitled “the craft of thought” the craft was exceptional, seamless, and the tailored pieces reminiscent of the 1940s, a nod perhaps to Baker’s membership of the French Resistance. Christian Dior’s younger sister Catherine Dior was also a member of the French Resistance and eventually imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1944. But this wasn’t simply about history, eras and vintage tropes, it was serious and subtle modern couture. Not a wave but a whisper. Grazia Chiuri has said that her happy place lies within the intimacy of creating couture with the craftspeople for the client and this was the sweet spot. So sweet that is has helped drive great results; in the first nine months of 2022, the Christian Dior Group recorded revenue of 56.5 billion euros, up by 28 per cent year-on-year.
On 1 February, Grazia Chiuri will be joined by Delphine Arnault, who will take up the position of CEO and chair of Dior following the recent LVMH reshuffle by her father Bernard Arnault. Together the two women will have the real power to keep Dior at the forefront of progressive feminine thinking.
But you don’t have to be a woman to elevate this conversation - Daniel Rosebery does it very nicely at Schiaparelli. Even before the show began at the impressive Petit Palais, on the Champs Elysee, Kylie Jenner with a faux (obviously) lions head and Doja Cat in top-to-toe red sequins dialled up the definition of successful women.
Entitled “Inferno” - hence the devilish Doja - Dante’s 1308 poem The Divine Comedy had inspired Rosebery. And while the themes of doubt, torment and risk taking were explored by its creator these looks were emphatically fantastical. Accomplished, expert, exquisite. The leopard, the lion (hence Jenner) and the she-wolf of the poem were all represented in crazy fabulous looks worn by Shalom Harlow and Naomi Campbell. Straight to the museum. It had swagger and not so much hell here, more heat in this heaven. And it’s only day one in Paris.
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