WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Once said the iconic American artist Judy Chicago, who inspired the Dior’s Haute Couture SS20 fashion show. For Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of the Maison, it is certainly not new to ask questions of this kind. For several seasons, fashion for her has been at the service of a hot social theme, at the service of our society of which she’s an ambassador who spread positive ideals that eradicate the old and now obsolete ones rooted in Western culture. Once again Dior becomes the means to question the complexity of the relationships between feminism and femininity by proposing, through its creations, an ode to the woman in all its characteristics.
Fundamental was the support of Judy Chicago, who through the installation “The Female Divine” designed for the Musèe Rodin garden, created an evocative and magnificent location. Maria Grazia Chiuri, on the other hand, made Judy’s message her own, adapting it to the clothes to suggest the idea of a triumphant and winning femininity, master of her destiny. She used peplum, a garment of timeless modernity, to adapt it to evening dresses; the drape, with its clean line to give structure to the shapes and highlight the silhouette. All accompanied by tight-fitting jackets with wide collars, skirts and trousers with typically masculine materials such as houndstooth or herringbone, woven with gold. But not only that, modernity has met in this SS Haute Couture collection, the idea of an ancient and strong woman, as were the Greek goddesses, who now modern and cosmopolitan parade in colourful silk dresses that recall the shapes of the ancient era.
Recalling figures such as Athena or the Nike of Samothrace, the Dior models catwalk in an unusual colours palette: no longer tartan but gold and silver, bright and feminine colours combined with light and precious textures. The shapes are those preferred by the Maison since its origin, feminine, chic and sensual but never exaggerated, perfectly tight as to make an ode of women’s unstoppable creative force.