DIOR RESORT 2023

The female flamenco dancer, giving her leaping, stamping, head-tossing performance in a black velvet suit was an almost exact reincarnation of the woman who had chiefly inspired Chiuri. “She was Carmen Amaya, who was the first female flamenco dancer to wear men’s clothes, in the 1950s. They called her La Capitana—a great name! She went to Paris and became very famous.” That one image started her off on a masculine-tailoring footing. Out strode an opening section of clean, lean, super high-waisted matador pants, embroidery, and passementerie, topped with locally-made men’s sombreros in black and white, and looks referencing the pristine equestrian uniforms of Spanish riding schools.

It was a pitch-perfect device for Chiuri, who’s imprinted her idea of androgynous, feminist dressing on Christian Dior from the first. She followed with romantic but reined-in references to off-the-shoulder flounced flamenco dresses in taffeta, subtle layerings of darkly sexy lace and black leather, black and white “arabesque” prints; then intensely detailed silhouettes in a deep carnation red.

As is usual for Dior these days, she’d been all around the region to form relationships with makers and artisans in the months ahead of the show. The hats, directed by Stephen Jones were made by the Fernandez Y Roche atelier and inspired by photos of the Duchess of Alba riding with Jackie Kennedy. The fringed and embroidered Manila shawls (adapted as capes with Christian Dior stitched into them) were made by Maria Jose Sanchez Espinar. There were—appropriately for the subject of the season—reiterations of the Christian Dior Saddle Bag, one of them in collaboration with the leather craftsman Javier Menacho Guisado.

This is partly to do with the new politics of cruise travel: for any major fashion house to airlift a huge audience to a destination, and then leave without demonstrably benefiting the host population is increasingly liable to be called out as questionable. But to Chiuri, finding local crafts specialists to work with is more than corporate box-ticking. Going back, the original strategy behind the cruise travel shows was to echo Christian Dior’s own global reach, she said (as he visited so many countries to set up licenses with foreign partners). “But I think this link now has to evolve in a different way to work with local craftspeople.” Besides, this is how she really loves working. It gives me energy. It’s very difficult to work without this exchange with people. I travel, go to factories and ateliers, one or two trips with the team. It’s not only about fashion and creativity. It’s an empathic moment. I don’t work so much in the office,” she laughed. “Actually, I find that super boring.”