Christian Dior: a dance to the music of clothes

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 24, 2018

One hesitates to say this to one’s friends in London, Milan and New York but after just one show in Paris, and admittedly a particularly brilliant piece of staging by Christian Dior, it felt like the house had switched up a major gear in both quality and fashion.

Inspired by the great women dancers of today and the past - like Isadora Duncan or Pina Bausch - this show was centered around a driving and devilish dance performance by the troop of the Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyel.

Powered on techno DJ Ori Lichtik, the dancers gyrated, rotated and gesticulated with abandon as the cast matched almost solemnly by.

In effect the dance often distracted attention away from the clothes, a slight pity as this was Maria Grazia Chiuri’s strongest fashion statement so far for Dior.

She reworked many of her preferences - Grecian goddess robes; abundant Bar jackets; semi-sheer evening wear and full skirts.

However, she took it all somewhere new with kaleidoscope motifs; muddy petal patterns and faded undulating colors. Plus her super lightweight Bars looked like must-haves.

Another mark of her growing stature, the whole mesh skirt over leggings idea that she invented was evident in many shows in Milan and New York. Plus a whole series of handbags worn over the shoulder bandelero style had were surefire winners at the cash register.

“Eh, oui, ca c’était beau!” exclaimed Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, Dior’s owner, in the backstage as his wife and two of his sons posed for photos with Chiuri.

Moreover, after several shows of feminist fashion at Dior that smacked at times of preaching, it was great to see a pure artistic statement about movement and the liberating power of dance.

"The experience of dance, its most intimate truth, the fact it remains a means of universal expression... have all stimulated my imagination,” said Chiuri.

This Italian began this Monday with more rumors that her tenure at Dior might soon be over. But after this gutsy and often gorgeous show many left the giant show tent in Longchamp racetrack saying you can rip up any redundancy notice. This was that good a show.