Dior: Wild Divinity

A celebration of prehistoric legends through Maria Grazia Chiuri’s eyes, and materialised savoir-faire style, no less, from the ateliers of Dior.

So we say, hello from the wild side.

For her first Cruise collection for the House, Chiuri tells us a story of the spirit and strength of ancient feminity. She reminded us of how Christian Dior himself was inspired by the works of Georges Bataille following the discovery of the Lascaux cave. From where he translated the rock paintings (of ancient fauna) to prints for his 1951 Ovale line.

Legends like these are incomplete without symbolic re-enactment of the wild. That amazing set-up of the Dior Sauvage show – designed to make you feel cosy by the fire in the night, adrenaline still running through your veins, feeling flushed from running in the wind from the day’s hunt.

The story unfolds, as the richly-spun silk jacquards of prehistoric wolves and horses rustle past, glistening like gold on blacks, on sharply tailored jackets, and dresses.

That silhouette, I love – where the strength of structure is juxtaposed with the femininity of the cinched waist, evident throughout the collection.

Layers of embroidered denim, leathers and fur are pulled together in earthy shades, proportions and lengths in solidarity. But as the layers fade away, the feminine vulnerability of the woman comes to fore, through the light tulle dresses with the lightness of wind, richly and beautifully embroidered with sequins, in the abstract of carcasses, wildlife, and female handprints.

Monsieur Dior’s beloved art of divination is also  revisited – with a pop twist – in this Chiuri collection, as brightly coloured tarots reinvented as Motherpeace.

Wildly pretty?

With savoire faire befitting of haute couture, this collection is sauvagely so.

All images courtesy of Dior