No dress is like another in Haute Couture, which prides itself in being so exclusive that it’s made-to-measure for each customer. Dior, one of the French Maisons with the richest history and vastest knowledge in the area, is aware of that, and more especially, its Creative Director of women’s lines, Maria Grazia Chiuri. If you pair that with her passion for art, you get the Spring/Summer 2024 collection she’s just presented at the beautiful Musée Rodin in Paris, where she searches for the garments’ specific, unreproducible aura.
This idea of aura doesn’t come from religion or fashion; it actually comes from Walter Benjamin’s trailblazing essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1939), which has kept inspiring thinkers, creators, and philosophers until today – from writer, essayist and cultural critic John Berger to Maria Grazia Chiuri herself. The Italian designer at the helm of Dior has dug deep into the Maison’s archive, and is bringing back some of Monsieur Dior’s most emblematic codes back to life, like the La Cigale dress or the visually hypnotic moiré effect – well, they never left, but they’re doing a big comeback.
On the book Dior by Christian Dior (Assouline, 2016), the Coutourier spoke about moiré’s captivating qualities as it “unfurls over winter like a wave,” and how the colour palette is emphasised “through its substance and sculptural quality.” Indeed, in this S/S 2024 collection we can see how the dresses, skirts and tailoring (wide pants, structured blazers) glimmer and create a visual effect like no other, be it in black, white, grey, gold, burgundy, navy or green. The richness of the fabric is paired with simple lines and clean silhouettes, which give them a refined, luxurious effect.
This collection features other contrasts though. The starting looks, in trench coat-color brown, are more subdued, but they feature couture elements like dramatic collars, asymmetric patterns, high-quality materials like cotton or silk, and especial attention to detail in the lining and buttons. As the models keep strutting down the runway, we see more embellished garments that titillate under the venue’s bright lights, especially dresses and night gowns but also blouses, skirts, and tunics, made by Dior’s expert craftsmen. Hand-stitched bejewelled pieces, capes made of velvet or feathers, transparencies and elegant pearl chokers complete another successful collection of Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior.
