In a week of radical resort collections, Dior spoke the feminist language, but conventional beauty prevailed
Resort/Cruise has been sensational this year. From its status as platform for expanded capsule shows, it’s produced outliers and wildcards this time. Shouldn’t all fashion aspire to this?
Chiuri’s heart-felt influences
For Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior, conceptually yes – a cojoining of art and polemics with its own connected history (ultimately the 1951 Mexique dress). The somber, cinematic downpour that awwashed models as they descended the stairs of the Colegio de San Ildefonso into the nighttime courtyard proved colonially poetic and haunting.
For Chiuri this personal collection was inspired by Frida Khalo’s feminist challenges of patriarchy, class and gender, Mexican dress (Tehuana clothing of the Zapotec women), and perceived similarities between Mexico and Chiuri’s native Italy.
Conventional Beauty
As Vogue pointed out, this was not an exercise in reductionist philosophy. Beyond the Khalo expressed altruisms at the start of the show, these black and whites offered pro-beauty takes on modernist past and present – pleated and tiered skirts, nipped waists, embroideries, gold strands, butterfly motifs, leather cowboy boots.
To return to the original question, should fashion radicalize then? Would Khalo wear Dior?