Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri inspired by location

Models wore sequined helmets and dresses that were inspired by Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s memory and imagination associated with the circus Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first woman to lead the legendary French label, and her hallmark feminism were present in force at the Dior show in Dubai.

“In this specific show we made a little capsule, that is like a small, new collection, of 15 pieces,” Chiuri said.

“Every time we move to another country, in some ways it’s the location that gives us inspiration.

“When you think about Dubai, you think of a place that in a sense is very Mediterranean, where there is the sun. So we use more colour, different techniques, different shapes.”

The Dubai catwalk featured Chiuri’s circusinspired dresses, ringmaster blazers and lion-tamer jackets – a nod, she says, to the sisterhood that binds women.

“In the circus, in specific — because it’s the circus that we used — all the women worked together. And each woman trusted the other woman, because it’s impossible to make this kind of exercise if you don’t trust each other,” Chiuri said.

“There is this element in the circus that fascinates me a lot. That is the clown. Behind the mask of the clown, you don’t know if there’s a man or a woman. You know that it’s a person,” Chiuri explained.

“So I covered the hair, because I would like for people to focus on the clothes.”