DIOR'S WOMEN FALL 23 COLLECTION

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Finding a new ingenious way of talking about feelings and emotions that can connect us with a country and its culture is precisely what Maria Grazia Chiuri wished to accomplish in this Dior Fall 2023 collection, with a view to explaining the collaboration, work relations and friendship linking her for many years to India and Karishma Swali, who directs the Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft, in Mumbai. A place of exchange, study, and emancipation for many women; a laboratory to explore different types of savoir-faire that the Creative Director of Dior women’s lines has long celebrated, highlighting thus the visionary spirit of the founding-couturier.

The Dior archives reveal Marc Bohan traveling to India, in April 1962, to unveil a hundred or so silhouettes in Mumbai and Delhi, a turning point of a conversation between France and India. For Marc Bohan, these presentations were charitable events, relating a new departure under his artistic direction: younger customers, and a more dynamic, contemporary approach to fashion and ready-to-wear.

Maria Grazia Chiuri has chosen palettes of colors and materials that exalt influences shared with Karishma Swali. Working on timeless clothing shapes which have stayed intact through time allows Chiuri to (re)design her favorite models. A color block sequence dedicated to silks – in shades of green, yellow, pink and purple –, in homage to Marc Bohan, comes in the form of sophisticated evening coats, sari-inspired straight skirts and traditional Indian cuts, as well as pants, little boleros, jackets and brassieres: a veritable sartorial genealogy defined by different heritages and fashion cultures.

The embroidery – both protagonist and means of research, opening up all the possibilities of this craft – and becomes a tool for appraising, through the relationship between Dior and the Chanakya ateliers and also the Chanakya School of Craft, the multiple landscapes of India: this cartography mixes and spotlights the various techniques which, via the School’s work processes, become the realm of a women’s patrimony and an instrument at once of inventiveness and empowerment.

Geometric shapes frame the gold and silver sequins or strass; decorative motifs come forth in this kaleidoscope of colors and the toile de Jouy is enhanced by elements of Indian scenery; the Jardin Indien floral drawing punctuates the silk of pyjamas, shirts and dresses. The collection evolves like a dialogue in which the collaborative dimension expresses itself more than ever, in a mutli-vocal manner and thanks to exceptional savoir-faire. Reflected in a complex piece of embroidery, it illustrates a tri-dimensional topography, moulded by the meeting and interweaving of plural cultural legacies.