Dior Spring 2025 Couture: Child’s Play
Maria Grazia Chiuri is having a museum moment.
Two of her designs for Dior are currently on show at the Louvre as part of its first fashion exhibition. You might think that seeing her work enshrined in such a venerable institution would have her thinking about posterity, amid persistent chatter that she’s plotting her next move after nine years at Dior.
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“I was more interested in the tapestry that was around,” she said with a laugh. “My idea is more to enjoy in the moment. I don’t care about the future.”
Chiuri is fascinated by the past, however. As part of another upcoming project, she’s been doing one of her periodic deep dives into fashion history, and you felt it in her spring haute couture collection, which was a festival of diaphanous corsets, crinolines and fitted tailcoats (in a fun twist, guests included “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan.)
The designer also drew inspiration from a recent exhibition of Surrealist art at the Pompidou Center in Paris. On her mood board were works by Leonor Fini and Dorothea Tanning, alongside references to the classic children’s novel “Alice in Wonderland.”
Wraparound panels embroidered with the botanical drawings of Indian artist Rithika Merchant were echoed in hoop skirts dripping with tendrils of lace and embroidered flowers, although these distracted somewhat from the core idea of the show, which was a playful exploration of silhouettes and proportions.
Chiuri incorporated the boxy construction of founder Christian Dior’s Cigale design in looks like a black lampshade dress sparkling with jet beads. The Trapèze line introduced in 1958 by his successor, the young Yves Saint Laurent, informed items such as a beige faille swing coat and a black taffeta baby doll.
But it was her deep dive into rococo — think draped pouf skirts, lacy culottes, puff sleeves and mini-crinis — that made this her most unabashedly feminine and romantic collection to date.
She balanced the extravagant shapes with humble materials, embroidering tulle dresses with raffia, straw and horsehair ribbons, and exposing inner constructions with sheer corsets and cage-like skirts.
“What we want to celebrate is the process of the couture work, and that is also the part that I enjoy more. It’s sometimes more emotional,” she said. “When we are in the process, it’s like all the team is playing together. We are playing the game of couture. After, when it’s done, your game is finished, so in some way you are just a little bit sad.”
She’s already thinking about ways to use some of the techniques in her next ready-to-wear show in March. Chiuri said focusing on work helps to protect her from outside noise, at a time when creative directors are coming and going at a ferocious clip.
“If you enjoy what you do, what’s happening around you doesn’t touch you,” she said. “You protect yourself with the creativity, because you are so focused and enjoying what you do that you don’t think about what’s happening around. It’s like when a child plays.”
Which goes back to her motto of seizing the day. “We’re all just passing through. I want to live now,” she exclaimed in Italian.
Launch Gallery: Christian Dior Spring 2025 Couture
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