Mon 24th September
And so to Longchamp racecourse for the Dior show, held in a vast box emblazoned with quotes from the great women of 20th Century dance.
“Dance is the movement of the universe concentrated on an individual,” said Isadora Duncan. “I’m not interested in how people move. I’m interested in what makes them move,” said Pina Bausch. Inside a vast, square, spotlit show-space, eight dancers in unitards performed modernist moves as the models strode around them. Monsieur Dior was a fan of dance, collaborating with Roland Petit and dressing Margot Fonteyn. With this link to the archive established, Maria Grazia Chiuri designed for the modern Dior customer with the body and movement in mind. Her fluid clothes moved with every step. The look was layered – a second-skin dancers’s unitard formed the base, over which were added light as air tulle skirts and gathered Grecian gowns.
Instead of her usual corseted gowns, Chiuri showed long tank dresses with flaring skirts in all the shades of nude, and flesh. With an eye on Instagram and a new generation of Dior customers, Chiuri took a detour into hiphop with string-vest dresses (made from lace not string) and baggy combat trousers in acid wash denim. Through it all, Chiuri’s troupe of dancers threw themselves into dynamic and mesmerising shapes. As a spectacle, the show soared. “Everything must come from the heart,” said a quote from Pina Bausch, scrawled onto the exterior of the venue. That’s where this show came from, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s heart.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
