French luxury fashion house Christian Dior (Dior) has kicked off Paris fashion week with an in-person runway display drawing celebrities to the front-row in an attempt to revive a touch of pre-pandemic glamour.
According to the reports, actresses Jessica Chastain, Cara Delevingne, Monica Bellucci, and Florence Pugh were among the limited crowd who lined the catwalk at Dior’s Fall/Winter 2021-2022 haute couture collection.
“I am just very happy to be in a room with people and look at incredible pieces,” said Ms. Chastain after the show, which she described as her first public appearance since the pandemic.
Designer Ms. Maria Grazia Chiuri has said in a statement that “she wanted fabrics to be front and center. An audience in the room could appreciate the detail and the tactile nature of the fabric in a way that does not come across online or in video footage.”
As per the reports, tweed ensembles, from jackets to hats resembling horse riding helmets, took the stage in a patchwork of muted tones. Models wore vegetal prints on a velvet and satin coat. For evening looks, there were long skirts embroidered with feathers and sheer pleated long dresses in silk gauze.
In the last few months, fashion brands have presented their collections in online-only formats like short films. With vaccinations improving and lockdowns lessening, fashion is reverting to conventional runway presentations, mixing live audiences and internet presentations for the time being.
Maria Grazia Chiuri Italian Fashion Designer
“We are all very emotional. There are so many people that work on the collection. We were happy to realize beautiful films but it was just a little bit impersonal. [Everyone] is really proud to the see the show, be backstage, live the moment with our clients, the press, our friends. In one year and a half, we lost a lot of these human contacts.”
LVMH-owned Dior staged the show in the gardens of Paris’ Rodin museum inside a temporary structure covered with embroidery designed by the French artist Eva Jospin and made by Indian craftswomen. The Paris Fashion Week will be held until July 8th.
