Contrary to what the backward ideology proposes at the rampant moment, human nature is naturally inclined to exchanges, to crossbreeding, to crossings, which can also manifest themselves as loans or thefts, but whose only result, always fluidified by commerce, is progress, cultural and material. «Craftsmanship that connects»: this is how Maria Grazia Chiuri summarizes the meaning of the Dior resort 2024 collection, presented on Saturday in Mexico City and part of an ongoing program, developed precisely through these which in fact are no longer pre-collections but complex and articulated, which brings the aesthetics of the historic French maison into contact with the craft traditions of a country that changes every year.
From a purely conceptual point of view, the encounter between a luxury giant and small artisans, often from the south or less fortunate areas of the world, can be configured as an action with a colonial flavor, but Chiuri’s enthusiasm for manual purest, uncorrupted, authentic forms decisively avoids this danger, without neglecting the fact that Dior, as a brand, activates real and profitable collaborations with local laboratories.
Then all this ends up in the wardrobes of rich and privileged women is a problem that concerns fashion in general, not only the Parisian maison par excellence: an ineradicable bug for which in the end the intentions of the creatives are appreciated and commended, letting the artifacts have a life of their own and follow the course for which they are destined. In this regard, Chiuri says: «Fashion is a powerful tool for self-representation, a way to determine oneself, and this is precisely what interests me. To carry out this research I have to use the territory of a brand, and this may appear contradictory, but there isn’t a solution».
The fulcrum of the narrative that Maria Grazia Chiuri has developed, with considerable success, for Dior, is the theme of the female artist, seen as the maximum expression of empowerment: a decisive choice, which partially compensates for the aesthetics pretty ladythe esprit of an elegant lady but not at all empowered, which is the founding code of the maison. In Mexico, such a story could only focus on Frida Kahlo, and it is precisely to her that the collection is dedicated.
Beyond a perhaps didactic approach, Kahlo is a character that lends itself well to such reflection, not least for the personal and conscious way in which she used the clothes to construct her own figure: a stratigraphy in which the local folk, the masculine suits, taste for color and rigor mixed in mercurial alchemies. All of this returns, filtered but well recognizable and foolproof, on the catwalk, under a heavy rain that adds magic instead of being a boring accident.