Last night, Dior released the Spring/Summer 2022 Haute Couture collection at the Musée Rodin in Paris and met a global audience through live streaming.
An hour before the release of the couture series, Dior shared behind-the-scenes footage of the show through social networks. Through fragmentary images and conversations with the craftsmen, we also guessed that this couture collection is related to embroidery and art.
With the start of the big show, a journey of Xuan Qi slowly unfolded.
First, the launch was filled with poetic surrealist paintings from the creation of Indian modern artists Madhvi Parekh and Manu Parekh – the first time Maria Grazia Chiuri, the brand's women's creative director, had included male artists in the collaboration.
Chiuri said on social media: "The embroidered works of Madhvi and Manu hang staggered on the walls, creating a narrative between mythology and realism, spreading along the walls like watching a movie. ”
These paintings are not simply presented in the form of "paintings", but through the outstanding embroidery skills of 380 craftsmen in the Chanakya Workshop and Chanakya Technical School in Mumbai, it took 280,000 hours to vividly display the brushstrokes of the artist's paintings through colorful silk threads and delicate techniques, covering a total area of 340 square meters.
It is worth mentioning that after the end of the show, these works will be open to the public from January 25 to 30 in the form of an art exhibition.
This is reminiscent of the Dior Autumn/Winter 2021 Haute Couture Show, also at the Rodin Museum, also under the clever flowers of the Chanakya workshop, presenting a 40-meter-long embroidery masterpiece created by French artist va Jospin.
Scottish artist curator and author Clare Hunter's book The Thread of Life: A History of the World in the Eye of a Needle was the inspiration for this idea, which inspired Chiuri to use traditional embroidery techniques to give women a voice.
This is also linked to the most important "embroidery" in haute couture, because the craftsmen in dior's workshop create it with "skill".
"We are like artists in a workshop, creating something extraordinary with our craftsmanship and insight into fabrics."
In the trailer released in advance, a young craftsman in the workshop said so.
On the runway this season, the embroidery process is carried out by "decoration" and "fabric innovation".
Everyone is more familiar with the decorative role of embroidery: or embroidery patterns with silk threads, or decorative elements such as beads and sequins sewn on the cloth surface, so that fashion shows a luxurious and beautiful appearance.
In particular, this A-shaped white coat, the fabric is interwoven with a variety of embroidery techniques to highlight the complex and three-dimensional texture, but the overall is very modern and contemporary.
The second is the innovation of couture fabrics, which is more complex and requires a large and professional team as a support – equivalent to developing a completely new fabric, but not based on technology, but through the inheritance of craftsmanship to achieve artistic creativity.
For example, a tidbit film from Dior's Fall/Winter 2021 couture collection reveals the fabric craftsmanship of a double-breasted coat. From a distance, the material that looks like a blue and white mixed textile thread is actually made by hand by hand, weaving a silk thread embedded in pearls into the fabric. This technique is time-consuming and tests the craftsmanship of the makers, and only by arranging pearls properly on the canvas can they bring a natural and poetic texture.
In the Spring/Summer 2022 couture collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri skillfully uses the most "rustic" off-white cashmere cuts to make an elegant cloak in the form of embroidery stitching. The stitch details are so insidious that one mistakenly believes that the decorative threads sewn over the entire cape coat are mistaken.
The same pieces that show the craftsmanship of the workshop have to be mentioned in the first few luxurious tights that opened the show: only through the embroidery of crystal, beads and silk threads, they form a complete fashion.
Fully embroidered transparent gauze skirts and beaded dresses are also exquisite, pearls, crystals, sequins, lace and other materials, can be used as embroidery materials, looming on the fabric, flexible and dreamy.
From a distance, the sparkling embroidery seems to be "hidden" into the simple and pure fashion silhouette.
This is also what Chiuri intended, because she wanted to reinvent the design language of Dior Haute Couture workshops, celebrating the essence of haute couture, which is: made for the body.
"In my heart, there is a consideration of beauty and body."
In the recently released documentary Dior Suit – Conversations with Greece, Maria Grazia Chiuri repeatedly mentioned the word "body." She considers how to express the female body from a fashion perspective.
She quickly thought of Dior's classic silhouette: the Bar Jacket.
Born in 1947 and designed by Mr. Christian Dior, this silk slim jacket is the label's most iconic signature, and it is the undisputed C position on the cover of any Dior fashion documentary or magazine.
Supermodel Natalia Vodianova once wore the original "Bar Jacket" on the cover of the August 2020 issue of Fashion and Beauty VOGUE, showing the classic and timeless charm.
Photo by Estelle Hanania
Styling: Daniela Paudice
However, the original Bar Jacket, which does not leave a gap between the fabric and the body, tests the wearer's figure.
Under The new design of Chiuri, the Bar Jacket in the Spring/Summer 2022 couture collection has been relaxed, still highlighting the female line, with a more contemporary look, with a loose skirt or expanded pants, showing a calm elegance.
It's not hard to see that Chiuri's way of depicting the female body is lax. For example, those few slim cashmere coats, with smooth and slender lines, to outline the woman's posture.
Underneath the elegant white cloak is a jacket and trouser suit, symbolizing the firm strength of a woman's soft exterior.
Even the elegant skirt is condensed into the most streamlined lines, leaving no trace of excess. Its exquisite internal structure is handmade by the brand's most professional craftsmen, which can only be experienced by the upper body.
It's an unusual haute couture show.
"I try to talk about women's present and future, Dior has to be about women's empowerment, if only flowers, it's definitely not enough." 」
After watching this season's Dior couture show, some people will surely ask this question: What is the beauty of haute couture? Aren't they magnificent colors, brilliant beaded decorations, or gorgeous dresses?
The answer to this question may be seen in a past interview with Maria Grazia Chiuri: "The Dior brand is all about femininity, and when I joined Dior, everyone told me that. So I thought, we have to talk about femininity in a high profile, but what does femininity represent in today's society? I try to talk about women's present and future, Dior has to be about female empowerment, and if it's just flowers, it's definitely not enough. ”
That's why we see an elaborate "daywear" wardrobe in the couture collection, which contains a modern suit that can be worn every day, a simple ruffled dress, and trousers cut from expensive cashmere.
Also in Vogue magazine's August 2020 "Classics and Reinventions" themed fashion blockbuster, Chiuri's "Amour Soleil" pleated shawl and lapel jacket set is also full of modern femininity, chic and elegant.
But Dior's romance is always there, and they turn into an elegant dress with dotted with crystal stones.
Or with a moving embroidery and pleating process, it gives the tulle skirt the most romantic appearance, while the silver brocade jacquard dress skirt outlines the graceful curves between the rhythms of the body.
The mesh dress on the finale is embroidered with shiny nails and crystals, each of which is beautiful like the clothes of the goddess in the mythological story, which is fascinating.
Maria Grazia Chiuri once said, "What makes bespoke fashion so beautiful is because it allows for free expression." ”
And Dior's haute couture dress must belong to the present, both romantic and full of power.
Edit: Tristan
Fine Arts: Roland