DIOR PRESENTS THE AUTUMN-WINTER 2021-2022 WOMEN'S READY-TO-WEAR

In every collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri chooses a territory where the time-space dimension is erased: suggestions andintentions give form and contours to an articulated constellation of clothes and accessories. For the autumn-winter 2021-2022 ready-to-wear collection, the Creative Director explores the world of fairy tales.A network of symbols, the tale is hardly just a means of escape: it serves to challenge and revisit stereotypes andarchetypes. It consists of a narrative projected into the future. Revisited by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the toy soldier’s uniformthus transforms into a series of blue cashmere coats embellished with touches of red and white. Shimmering lamé andLurex jacquards lend this stylized silhouette a metallic shine; fabrics made with gold and silver threads appear to floatas if by magic. Black boldly asserts itself on a range of pieces from skirts to theBarjacket punctuated with thecannagemotif, an iconic Dior code, or with a hood that might have been worn by Angela Carter’sLittle Red Riding Hood*.Red is a through line, on little coats(“I think a red coat is very nice!”wrote Monsieur Dior inThe Little Dictionary ofFashion): it illuminates capes and raincoats always with hoods. It permeates tartans via an archival rose motif** evokingthe original tale ofBeauty and the Beast,of which Maria Grazia Chiuri is particularly fond, notably in Jean Cocteau’s filmadaptation, itself inspired by the fairy tales of two writers: Madame d’Aulnoy, a contemporary of Perrault, and MadameLeprince de Beaumont.Evening gowns are fit for princesses, in layered tulles that seem to evaporate in a froth of marvelous colors. Then thereare white collars, plastrons inbroderie anglaise,and white bobby socks recalling the world of childhood.A new self-awareness, born of a feminine sensibility that knows how to blend memories of the past and maturity, as if by magic