Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri took inspiration from ancient Greek womenswear to create a feminine, modern collection for the fashion house’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020 in Paris.
The stage set up of the show was created by the veteran American feminist artist Judy Chicago, who told AFP: “We walk in the way we came out.”
Quite literally, the interior was designed in the shape of a womb, with embroidered banners asking what life would be like “if women ruled the world”.
Dior’s designer Maria Grazia Chiuri — the first woman ever to lead the fabled French fashion house — has made female empowerment a pillar of the brand, launching her reign in 2016 with a T-shirt reading “We should all be feminists.”
“Women’s power is not just reproduction, but the power to create,” the Italian told AFP as she sent out a breathtaking pantheon of Greek goddesses in shimmering draped diaphanous gold and ivory creations.
Inspired by the peplos robes of ancient Greece and the classical statues, Chiuri used rope and knot motifs to tie her vision of classical “Botticellian beauty” to women who have taken destiny by the label.
Nothing said that more than the feathered cape fit for Cleopatra herself worn by the Dominican supermodel Lineisy Montero.
“We want to celebrate the divine aspect of women and their power,” Chiuri said.
Women can create their own gods and role models, she insisted, as she sent her modern Athenas and Artemises down an imperial purple carpet of “one thousand flowers” that Chicago imagined as a tribute to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the medieval ruler of France and England.
“The real problem is that we don’t think (as women) that we can dream,” Chiuri added.
When I started out in fashion I never thought it would be possible for me to be here, but it can happen. Where does this (blockage) come from?” the designer asked.
“Doing this collaboration with Judy (Chicago) is also a way of telling young women that there are references in art and fashion for them — people who have gone before them.
“You can do it — your life is not predetermined to be a mother. I am very happy to be a mother, but it is not the only thing that I am. I am also a creative director, a wife, a friend,” Chiuri added.
Sourced via Lifestyle INQ.
