Some shows remind us that couture has a higher purpose than winding up in the back of a socialite’s closet after the Met Gala. It can be deeply introspective, informative even, asking us to consider the world through a new lens or to re-examine our assumptions about ourselves. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior Spring 2021 Couture presentation is one of those that aims to grow beyond the tastes of the handful of clientele in their atelier roster and into the realm of public art.
It’s a curious token of the pandemic that couture shows are more accessible than ever, as more designers are venturing into film to present their collections. Chiuri did as much with director Matteo Garrone in her last couture collection for Dior, a short film whose merits were overshadowed by the lack of diverse casting. This season’s film offering, also directed by Garrone, included a modest improvement in casting and considerable development of the brand’s film footprint.
The results are, for me, nothing short of bewitching.
Watch the entire Dior Spring 2021 Couture show at the end of this post!
Mood
Dior Spring 2021 Couture is scorpio mood, if I may say so myself
I’m coming out and saying it: there is nothing subtle in Chiuri’s use of metaphor here. However, she and Garrone so masterfully pull you in through the magic of lighting, music, staging, the textures of the clothes and the intricacies of the sets, that frankly it hardly matters.
The metaphor in question is this: an inquiring ingenue seeks a tarot reading with the simple question, “who am I?” The cards, which were paired with such exquisitely pithy foley sound that I could feel the card stock against my palms as the fortune teller shuffles and plies them, open up a story – that of two parallel, yin-yang souls wandering a labyrinthine castle, guided by the tarot characters incarnate. It’s a fable meant to mimic the inner journeys we take in times of growth and uncertainty, Chiuri said in a Zoom call with Vogue, ending with the two characters meeting in a romantic tryst. In a surprise twist that absolutely no one saw coming, the two merge into one being, the masculine/feminine sides of the coin of her being (*waves hands theatrically*), the dual essence of our protagonist having been with her all along (mon dieu!).
Pushing my snark aside (it can’t be helped), I am undeniably pulled into this story. How could I not, when Plato’s Allegory of the Cave practically lived under my pillow in high school? When, despite my cynicism towards astrology, my heart is unequivocally scorpio, one that basks and broods in questions of existence and is unashamedly wooed by the sensory experience of life? I mean, the textures in this collection are unbelievable. Add gold-gilded bodices, misty sets, well-cut trousers, and a banging instrumental soundtrack in a minor key and you’ve just intoxicated me past the point of inebriation.
You see, how Chiuri and Garrone roped my little heart in? Sorcery! I skip past the part where my brain decries the metaphor as heavy-handed and straight to that feeling of satiation you feel after seeing an art exhibit or a film that hit you just right. That feeling when something has rung that clear little bell of truth in the back of your mind and you feel oddly seen, strangely comforted by someone else’s work. Odd, isn’t it?
The C L O T H E S
The decadent efficacy of the film’s projection of Chiuri’s collection into story form is ultimately grounded in her designs. Dior has always had the men’s tailoring allele in its DNA, always balanced with the traditionally feminine flou (yes, that’s a real word and what a great one to just throw in there from time to time?). Perhaps there hasn’t been a better visual yet to the house’s masculine-feminine dichotomy than the current collection paired and Garrone’s film, as it literally tells the tale of exploring the opposing sides of one’s identity. We see impeccably tailored matador suits alongside gloriously embroidered silk gowns, belted waists next to Grecian draping.
What speaks more urgently to the current collective psychology is Chiuri’s introduction of the Italianate renaissance aesthetic: architectural empire waists, square necklines, bell sleeves, even some very Medici-esque robes. Yes, robes – isn’t that glorious? Above and beyond the fact that Chiuri masterfully blended elements of her native Italy with the French house is that she chose to evoke the Renaissance era.
Y’all know what came before the Renaissance – the freaking Dark Ages. If you don’t know why someone might feel like we’re stuck in a dark age, where have you been and why didn’t you take me with you? In any case, this collection is reactionary with its social commentary. The Renaissance was a time of change, innovation, expansion of consciousness, a landmark of grown in the Western psyche (it’s worth mentioning that this Renaissance is not the only growth period that matters – take the Nadha, or the Aztec golden age, for example, but I digress). It was a time balanced between the inner world of self-reflection and the outer exuberance of new technology, one that a person living in 2021 hopes, in a way, to return to.
Through the nuts and bolts of her collection, and by extension through Garrone’s film, Chiuri reframed our narrative of what life can look like right now. For her, it’s a balance between old and new, masculine and feminine, structured and flowing – but always, always, always a journey of discovery.
I’m a Tarot Convert (sort of)
I should clarify one thing: I’m not a tarot person. Or a zodiac person. I don’t believe in the predictive powers – be they of personality traits or life events – of either of these things. Those statements should be moderated with another thing I believe to be true: we never really know anything, ever – so I could be wrong.
All of that is to say that this collection made me rethink tarot, inasmuch as a person poorly acquainted with the subject could be, and here’s why:
Chiuri chose the tarot theme not only because it blended well with her hybrid French-Italian collection, but also because it held special meaning to Christian Dior personally. His sister, Catherine, was part of the French resistance in World War II and caught, was interned for a time in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Not knowing what had happened Catherine, Dior turned to tarot for comfort. Later, having returned home, she would become his muse – but it’s impossible to overstate the effect of her imprisonment on their lives.
Tarot brought comfort to Dior in a time of duress, hence it’s dual relevancy to Chiuri’s renaissance theme, tarot having originated in Italy in that time period. But she does something more with it than play with its supposed predictive power. She highlights tarot’s creative power above everything, one that outshines any prognostic value. Here, it’s used as a tool to better know your inner landscape – something that so many people have been forced to do in times of the pandemic, as we’ve been shut-in with ourselves for company.
The tarot characters are archetypes of forces, people, or even inner “voices” in our lives. They steer, inform, challenge, sometimes love us, sometimes mock us, but – if listened to – lead us back to ourselves. I had never considered tarot with this lens before, and for the first time I considered why the art has such staying power. I mean, I just said it without meaning to: it’s art. It’s inherently creative, inherently truthful when approached earnestly and with reflection, with complete presence and, paradoxically, not thinking of the future.
That’s life, isn’t it? Constant change with a permanent freeze-frame on the present, one that’s three dimensional, cerebral, and sensory. Chiuri’s collection is presenting us with an invitation to view life this way, to search, to remain curious, to be with yourself even in periods of unrelenting uncertainty.
Watch the Dior Spring 2021 Couture show here:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Dior Spring 2021 Couture show – send them my way!
love,
Stig.
Photos from Dior via Vogue. Info via Vogue Runway and The New York Times.
