Yahoo Finance Dior brings back the glamour of couture, from £200,000 bridal gowns to socks dripping in crystals
After almost two years of shows behind closed doors, Dior provided a dramatic curtain raiser to the Paris couture season on Monday afternoon. There was palpable excitement at the return to catwalks proper - not least among the celebrities gathered to watch the fun at the Musée Rodin on the Left Bank. These included former Bond villainess Rosamund Pike, Lady Amelia Windsor (a distant cousin of The Queen), The Crown’s Claire Foy and supermodels Natalia Vodianova and Cara Delevingne.
All the brides whose weddings have been put off by Covid may well feel that it was worth the wait to waft down the aisle in one of creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s impeccable white slimline sheaths. Especially one with a little train or elaborate beading covering the breast. That’s if the brides have saved up the £200,000 a couture wedding dress could set them back.
One of Chiuri’s great skills lies in creating accessories that every woman can wear, or at least aspire to. The Italian designer dreamed up the Fendi Baguette - the tiny little It-bag that earned its own episode in Sex and the City and is still going strong. She then went to Valentino and fashioned the Rockstud shoe that became a gigantic bestseller.
At Dior, she’s delivered hit after hit in the way of shoes, boots and bags that have turned the Paris fashion house into a £7bn brand. And what can we learn from her Couture catwalk? It’s all about socks. But not just any socks, these are crystal-embroidered and worn with equally sparkling tights and paired with kitten heels dripping with rhinestone.
Crystals glittered all over Oscar-worthy evening gowns, sleeveless jackets and knee-length coats, as well as on sparkly leotards that P T Barnum might have considered OTT. In one respect, though, her catwalk was very minimal: the colour palette was a rigidly restrained combination of black, white, grey and nude.
Chiuri may be a hit maker, but she is a thoughtful one; and that restrained use of colour meant the giant embroidered artworks that provided a backdrop for the show caught the eye.
These are interpretations of the work of two Indian contemporary artists, the married couple Madhvi and Manu Parekh. The colourful, abstract tapestries, sewn in Mumbai, are a reminder of the astonishing amount of work that goes into not only a 3m-high work of art but also into a crystal-embellished pair of tights.
Chiuri’s mission is to highlight the work of the seamstresses and artisans in her couture ateliers as well as those around France, Italy and not least India. ‘I think calling them petites mains [little hands - the French term for a couture seamstress] is wrong. They’re more than that,’ she said. ‘It’s about knowledge and skill and tradition.’ That message may be lost on a bride intent on making a splash in church, but it certainly resonates around an industry that’s been struggling to survive for the past two years.
The art installation will be open to the public until 30th January at the Musee Rodin www.musee-rodin.fr/en
