The show was set in the Panathenaic Stadium
“I’m interested in clothes as a way of giving freedom of movement,” Maria Grazia Chiuri said on a video call from Athens the day before her Dior Cruise show. After a year in domestic confinement, she felt the call of sports and decided to seek out its most original arena: the Panathenaic Stadium, built by the Ancient Greeks in 330 BC as a sporting ground for their beloved games and astute appreciation of movement. “I wanted to make a collection for women today,” she said. “Women want freedom, especially after this long lockdown. That’s what we desire: to move our bodies.” The show – which was mainly attended by local guests due to ongoing travel restrictions – fused Greek cultural heritage with the legacy of Christian Dior through the lens of Chiuri’s inspired union of sportswear and savoir-faire, and culminated in a Leda-inspired swan dress to rival Björk.
Maria Grazia Chiuri has a bond with Greece
Chiuri first went to Greece with friends after graduating high school. “We visited all the antiquities together, without money, in a car. It was super fun,” she recalled. Here, she recognised the genetics between Ancient Greek culture, her own Roman upbringing, and her father’s Apulian heritage. “I come from Roma, don’t forget. Around me, the reference of Greece is everywhere, on every statue. It’s my background,” she said, noting how traces of Greece are still strong in the Puglia region where she owns a house not far from Grecia Salentina, home to the Griko people who speak Italiot Greek. If not home turf, those facts made the Panathenaic Stadium something of a comfort zone for Chiuri, whose collection exercised her knack for real clothes rooted in the bulletproof silhouettes of the ancient world.
Chiuri first went to Greece with friends after graduating high school. “We visited all the antiquities together, without money, in a car. It was super fun,” she recalled. Here, she recognised the genetics between Ancient Greek culture, her own Roman upbringing, and her father’s Apulian heritage. “I come from Roma, don’t forget. Around me, the reference of Greece is everywhere, on every statue. It’s my background,” she said, noting how traces of Greece are still strong in the Puglia region where she owns a house not far from Grecia Salentina, home to the Griko people who speak Italiot Greek. If not home turf, those facts made the Panathenaic Stadium something of a comfort zone for Chiuri, whose collection exercised her knack for real clothes rooted in the bulletproof silhouettes of the ancient world.
The collection was about movement and freedom
Inspired by an archive picture of a model wearing a Christian Dior outfit in the Acropolis, Chiuri set out to adapt the formal lines of her house’s founder with a sportier, more contemporary sensibility. She relaxed the construction of the Bar Jacket and re-energised it with technical fabrication, elevated athleisure with couture-level techniques, and handed her spotlight to the ancient peplos, a Grecian dress type – and a Chiuri all-time favourite – which you might call the world’s first-ever wardrobe staple. Along with a series of white suits in homage to Marlene Dietrich (Chiuri had fallen in love with a photograph of her dressed up as the Greek heroine Leda), the collection was a study of contemporary wardrobe through the unclichéd binoculars of ancient history.
Inspired by an archive picture of a model wearing a Christian Dior outfit in the Acropolis, Chiuri set out to adapt the formal lines of her house’s founder with a sportier, more contemporary sensibility. She relaxed the construction of the Bar Jacket and re-energised it with technical fabrication, elevated athleisure with couture-level techniques, and handed her spotlight to the ancient peplos, a Grecian dress type – and a Chiuri all-time favourite – which you might call the world’s first-ever wardrobe staple. Along with a series of white suits in homage to Marlene Dietrich (Chiuri had fallen in love with a photograph of her dressed up as the Greek heroine Leda), the collection was a study of contemporary wardrobe through the unclichéd binoculars of ancient history.
Dior commissioned a string of local talent
As her Cruise tradition dictates, Chiuri enlisted a number of local craftsmen to work on the collection. Fisherman’s caps were created by Atelier Tsalavoutas, purveyor to the real fishermen of Hydra, while the tailor Aristeidis Tzonevraki crafted a Book Tote and a Bar Jacket through his unique embroidery method, and Silk Line – a factory based in Soufli, known for its silks – adapted Dior’s houndstooth. The artist Christiana Soulou drew seven female figures from Greek mythology, which Chiuri immortalised in jacquards in the folds of dresses, and the Los Angeles-based Greek musician Ioanna Gika read a poem during the show.
As her Cruise tradition dictates, Chiuri enlisted a number of local craftsmen to work on the collection. Fisherman’s caps were created by Atelier Tsalavoutas, purveyor to the real fishermen of Hydra, while the tailor Aristeidis Tzonevraki crafted a Book Tote and a Bar Jacket through his unique embroidery method, and Silk Line – a factory based in Soufli, known for its silks – adapted Dior’s houndstooth. The artist Christiana Soulou drew seven female figures from Greek mythology, which Chiuri immortalised in jacquards in the folds of dresses, and the Los Angeles-based Greek musician Ioanna Gika read a poem during the show.
Chiuri wanted to convey the true character of Greece
Asked how she convinced the Greek state to let her show in the Panathenaic Stadium, Chiuri said it was simple. “I asked. I gave them my project. Honestly, I think what we did in Lecce was helpful. They knew I was interested in many different aspects of the country,” she said, referring to last summer’s Dior Cruise show, which celebrated Apulian culture. “Greece and Athens have a huge history. I had to study a lot. In this case, it was very hard because the reference of Greek culture is really the reference of the West. When you look at it now, it’s completely different from when I was studying Greek culture in school,” Chiuri reflected. “I don’t understand why, in school, everybody talked to me about Odysseus but never how much cleverer Penelope was.”
Asked how she convinced the Greek state to let her show in the Panathenaic Stadium, Chiuri said it was simple. “I asked. I gave them my project. Honestly, I think what we did in Lecce was helpful. They knew I was interested in many different aspects of the country,” she said, referring to last summer’s Dior Cruise show, which celebrated Apulian culture. “Greece and Athens have a huge history. I had to study a lot. In this case, it was very hard because the reference of Greek culture is really the reference of the West. When you look at it now, it’s completely different from when I was studying Greek culture in school,” Chiuri reflected. “I don’t understand why, in school, everybody talked to me about Odysseus but never how much cleverer Penelope was.”
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