Details from the Dior Couture Spring-Summer 2024
The 18th century was an aesthetic obsession for Monsieur Dior, who took inspiration from the era's fashions and decorative elements for his collections.
It’s a practice that‘s been perpetuated for Dior Couture Spring-Summer 2024 by Maria Grazia Chiuri who offered her own reimagining of embellishments such as botanical embroideries in textured chenilles or glossy jet beads, lace effects created in sequins on tulle, and exotic flora and fauna evoked in metallic cannetille.
In the ateliers, an assortment of irresistible adornments attests to the richness of the Dior Couture Spring-Summer 2024 collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri. These manifestations of Dior Savoir Faire prowess involve highly specialized techniques such as the manipulation of metallic cannetille (a fine gold or silver thread twisted spirally that is used in embroidery and often made into lace for vestments or into military braid) into a composition of exotic flora and fauna on a cotton twill coat, a top comprised entirely of hand-crocheted flowers, thousands of silver sequins replicating finely detailed lace, and scalloped swags of iridescent and opalescent beads encircling a skirt.
The Creative Director of Dior women's lines decided to trace aura through the House’s haute couture history which embodies the essence of fashion and ultimate excellence. The La Cigale dress – designed by Christian Dior for autumn-winter 1952 – evokes the sacredness of the Atelier through its sculptural construction and moiré fabric, thus becoming the starting point for a theory that recontextualizes couture. A fragile boundary between art and life.
For Maria Grazia Chiuri, Big Aura is what pervades haute couture, which is a perpetually fertile ground for contemplation where the reproduction of the original is never the same. Each piece is bound to be adapted to the body of the wearer, and carries its own specific aura. According to Walter Benjamin's1 definition, aura – to which Maria Grazia Chiuri and Isabella Ducrot refer in different ways – reflects the uniqueness and authenticity of the work of art. It inscribes it in the collective memory.
The geometric lines of La Cigale, create an architectural elegance: coats with imposing collars, wide skirts revealing exaggerated cut-outs, overlapping layers, pants and jackets. The shapes revisit details of dresses from the Dior archives to recreate contemporary looks. Cotton and silk in a trench-coat color create a captivating, innovative yet classic effect.
“It’s the first time I’ve used moire—I always associate it more with interior design,” Maria Grazia Chiuri said at a preview in the Dior showroom. “But I discovered it has an incredible palette of colors, and the pattern of it, where it catches the light, gives a different perspective on embroidery.”
Black velvet dresses sublimate the look, flowing in motion, while a sumptuous feather cape rests on an embroidered double organza dress. The embroidery is like fragments of ancient poems unearthed, leading the imagination to meander. It conjures the colorful variety of nature, as the Millefiori motif punctuates the entire surface of a yellow moiré dress, or strands of long threads swaying to the rhythm of footsteps.
A collection originating from Maria Grazia Chiuri's desire to shine a light on the idea of the 'aura' emanating from couture clothing and, by extension, their wearer, Dior Couture Spring-Summer 2024 is a story of reinvention and innovation. Employing all the possibilities associated with Dior Savoir Faire, that might mean interpreting 18th-century motifs in metallic cannetille, lace effects on a net dress with silver sequins, or tailoring the iconic Dior Bar Jacket anew in burnished shantung.
