It's strange that Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of Dior's womenswear line, hasn't done more research on the fascinating life of Marlene Dietrich—a designer who frequently draws inspiration from strong female role models. The German-born actress, whose androgynous beauty encapsulated the spirit of the early 20th century, caused waves in Hollywood and beyond. In addition to being a symbol of the heyday of silver screen splendor, Dietrich remains one of the most fascinating actors in cinematic history, whether she is seen smoking a cigar while dressed in a man's suit or wearing a revealing negligee that represented the height of feminine elegance, reported South China Morning Post.
Chiuri had the actress in mind when she created the brand's pre-fall 2024 collection, which was just shown in New York on April 15 at a star-studded event held at the Brooklyn Museum. Chiuri was a personal client of the late Christian Dior. Celebrities including Rosamund Pike, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Haerin from the K-pop group NewJeans were present at the event.
In an interview with Style, Chiuri states that she saw Dietrich as "the bridge" between two fashion capitals: Paris, where Dior is based, and New York, where Christian Dior opened a store in 1948, just one year after founding the maison. "By looking at Marlene Dietrich's wardrobe, I was able to delve into the very tangible reality of one of the first Dior customers," Chiuri continues. In a chapter of his memoirs, he talked about his visits to the city, which, in Chiuri's opinion, started a conversation between the two metropolises.
The Statue of Liberty, which was given to the United States by the French as a gift in the late 19th century, is a significant symbol of this conversation and has come to symbolize the city of New York globally. Chiuri paid the most overt nod to the twin cities by incorporating drawings of the famous statue and its counterpart, the Eiffel Tower, into clothing pieces including shirts, skirts, and knits, as well as accessories like the brand's best-selling Book Tote, Lady Dior, and Saddle bags.
Another important component of the collection was the contrast between menswear tailoring and feminine forms, which was meant to allude both Dietrich's own style as well as the way women dress nowadays for everyday activities. Delicate counterpoints to manly textiles like tweed were gowns with lace embellishments and lingerie-inspired styles from the 1940s, both constructed of quilted nylon and using the house's iconic cannage design.
These boyish appearances honored Christian Dior's preference for the cloth as well as Dietrich's widely documented manly ensembles, which caused quite a stir in the past. The designer stated that tweeds have become more popular in recent years, even for dressier suits, in his Petite Dictionnaire de la Mode (The Little Dictionary of Fashion). They seem really elegant to me. It is "must" to wear them when in the nation. Tweeds were once exclusively available in a rather heavy weight, but they are now available in a wide variety of weights, quality, and colors.
Chiuri, who views the pre-fall collection as a chance to reflect on the female-friendly aesthetic she's been building at Dior, believes that the line should serve as a wardrobe for everyday women, unlike the brand's more fashion-forward ready-to-wear collections that are showcased in Paris or its haute couture shows, which stand for the height of high fashion.
The fact that the collection was revealed a few days after AppleTV+'s final episode of The New Look aired may not have been a coincidence. The 10-episode series tells the story of Christian Dior's ascent in the midst of post-World War II Parisian hardships and his ground-breaking first collection, which changed fashion forever in 1947. After years of hardship, Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar at the time, offered women a reason to rejoice once more with the launch of the "New Look" collection.
Chiuri's ability to capture the same fantasy, while also bringing her creations to life and attending to women's actual requirements, has made her vision popular with women worldwide. There will be many admirers of this show in New York, Paris, and other places because it was another fruitful move in that direction./BGNES