Dior's Fall/Winter 2024 Haute Couture Show Pays Tribute to Elegant Athleticism
Inspired by the upcoming Olympic Games, Maria Grazia Chiuri imagines a collection that takes inspiration from athletes of past and present.
Inspired by the forthcoming Olympic Games, Maria Grazia Chiuri envisions a collection that honours female athletes from Antiquity to the present, who have surmounted prejudices and obstacles to earn equal standing in sporting competitions and recognition for their athletic achievements. Unveiled in the resplendent Musée Rodin at Paris Fashion Week, the collection drew inspiration from the undeniable grace, power, and athleticism of women in ancient Greece and Rome.
For her Fall/Winter 2024 Haute Couture collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the artistic director of the House of Dior, revisits the peplos—a garment she holds dear—for its dual qualities of absoluteness and malleability. This new Christian Dior Couture collection operates within the realm of a political freedom won by the body, where Couture can shape and be shaped by the body. Chiuri chooses to use unconventional materials for Couture, such as jersey, which caresses the body, and metallic mesh in gold, silver, and white.
Images courtesy of Dior
Pleats are a recurring motif throughout the collection, sewn or opened to follow movement. Drapes, evoking classical statuary, are woven into the shiny black silk velvet dresses, moiré jacquard skirts transformed over time, and suits where pants emerge from beneath draped skirts. In goddess-like dresses, draped over one shoulder, transparent metallic tank tops edged with satin are revealed. The sports suit, reimagined in a Couture context, is adorned with gold leaf or micro-sequins. Red, the "colour of life" according to Christian Dior, enhances the collection, while a bathrobe embroidered with mirror mosaics defies its traditional role.
For Chiuri, this collection is an extraordinary opportunity to intertwine Couture, sportswear, classicism, rebellion, collective energy, and, above all, the political significance of the female body. It affirms the experimental and reflective power of Haute Couture's research, reimagining feminine forms that are both delicate and powerful, capable of performing differently yet equally to the male body.
Dior Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2024 Show
