The house of Dior celebrates it’s cross-cultural ties with India in their Fall/Winter 2023 collection. The campaign ingeniously explores the feelings and emotions which connect Maria Grazia Chiuri to India’s culture and heritage. Chiuri uses the occasion to honour her friendship, work relations and legacy in India.
A cross-cultural relation which began around 60 years ago when Marc Bohan first travelled to India to present a new departure of the hosue under his artistic direction. Hoping to attract younger customers and appeal to the increasingly dynamic and contemporary approach to fashion and ready-to-wear. Bohan unveiled his silhouettes into Mumbai and Delhi signalling the crossroads between French and Indian relations which further deepened in 2016 when Maria Grazia Chiuri founded a partnership with Karishma Swali, director of the the Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft, in Mumbai.
A place of exchange, study, and emancipation for Indian women. Reflected via the School’s work processes and disciplines which have opened up a new realm for women to develop craft as a reflection and extension of their own patrimony. The Chanakya ateliers and School of Craft serve as instruments for inventiveness and empowerment bestowing different types of savoir-faire, the main protagonist - the embroidery. A discipline which opens up new possibilities and becomes a tool for appraisal between ateliers highlighting the visionary spirit of the house.
Chiuri works with a palette of colours and materials that exalt the influences shared with Karishma Swali and Marc Bohan – a colour block dedicated to silks delivered through different shades of green, yellow, pink and purples. Geometric shapes frame the gold and silver sequins and harness decorative motifs of the Jardin Indien. Timeless silhouettes and traditional Indian cuts are re-visited and re-designed into evening coats, sari-inspired looks, straight skirts, pants, little boleros, jackets and brassieres: a genuine sartorial genealogy moulded by the interweaving of plural cultural legacies.
