#SuzyCouture: Dior’s Dollhouse

Maria Grazia Chiuri turns to a dream sequence of French couture to present her new collection of nymphs from ancient Italy.

“Surrealist images make visible what is itself invisible. I am interested in mystery and magic, which are a way of exorcising uncertainty about the future,” Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri said. 

The words were an introduction to a mesmerising Dior film that introduced nymphs floating in water, wearing not very much, embracing love (and each other) against the magical background of Italy’s Garden of Ninfa, near Rome.

The famous Parisian couture house has found a new way to create an image of fashion dreams beyond the runway. The film, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, will spread around the globe. But that is not the only fashion reality in this Coronavirus era. The Autumn/Winter 2020-2021 Dior Haute Couture will be sent to clients around the world on 37 mini dressmaker mannequins that were laid out in the film inside a little house on wheels, pushed by uniformed hotel staff. 

This was not merely an entertaining moment in the film. It is the reality of how the House of Dior believes it can offer its new collection to its international clientele.

The film was breathtaking in its detail and powerful emotion. I can imagine current and would-be clients inviting friends to watch it with them – again and again. And at the core of it all is Maria Grazia, known for her strong feminist feelings, admitting that one great love in her life is… dolls.

“I really love dolls – honestly! And no-one can imagine that when I was young I spent a lot of time making dresses for dolls,” said the designer, who, in her four years at Dior has spoken out constantly for women’s strength in the arts – and in life. On this occasion, Maria Grazia was making a very different statement on the opening day of the first-ever digital presentations of the Paris Haute Couture season.

Across the screen were the sweet faces of the figurines that Paris couturiers first produced just after the Second World War as a way of reaching their top couture clients around the world. Dressed in delicate and detailed scaled-down versions of their designs, these were made at the time to re-light the flame of high fashion. 

 

 

 

 

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Dior’s Maria Grazia built her own dream at Dior - by referring back to a post war period when haute couture customers were inspired by dolls dressed in high fashion.

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Lip 6, 2020 o 11:48 PDT

The revival of that idea – although in such different circumstances – was an inspiration. And not at all out of character, Maria Grazia claimed, while putting the finishing touches to these mini models.

“My mother had an atelier and I spent a lot of time there making little things for my dolls and for myself,” the designer said. “I remember making denim jeans and a bag, and made a doll’s house in my bedroom from shoe boxes –each of the painted boxes creating a different ‘room’. I have a playful side and in that [lockdown] moment that was so depressing, it helped me to feel positive.”

Aside from the dolls, the designer was inspired by “Tale of Tales”, Matteo Garrone’s 2015 fantasy feature with a story as far from a fairy tale as can be, with Salma Hayek playing a 17th-century queen thirsting for a child.

As well as reaching out to cultural icons, the film celebrated the skills of the ‘petites mains’ who had the extraordinary job of recreating in a smaller, postage-and-packing version, the intricacies of couture outfits. 

Could there be a more peculiar Paris Haute Couture season than this Zoom-in vision of fashion that is supposed to be at the highest level of imaginative and creative art?

The first day, launched by Naomi Campbell speaking up for diversity in the fashion world, was launched by Schiaparelli’s designs, literally, in the hands of its American Artistic Director, Daniel Roseberry. He was trapped in New York by the pandemic and showed a film of himself, wearing a medical mask, sketching the collection in a Manhattan park. 

The bold silhouette, with a focus on wide, curving shoulders, a narrow bottom half and witty accessories such as gloves shaped as hands, caught the “Schiap” spirit. The designer is hoping to show a completed version in Los Angeles when the world loosens up, before the Christmas holiday season.

The Dior couture show was so remarkable because it has already been announced by the designer and by Pietro Beccari, Chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, that they have planned and prepared a second show for Dior Cruise 2021 in late July, focusing on Italy’s Puglia region, where Maria Grazia was born and raised. 

The French house has gone a long way since Christian Dior himself founded his business in 1947. But as the original designer’s style was based on the concept of a ‘New Look’, he would surely have approved of Dior’s worldwide reach in 2020.