Christian Dior sang the blues to its star-studded front row at Paris Fashion Week on Friday (MARCH 3) afternoon, in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s sophomore ready-to-wear show that celebrated all things navy.
“Among all the colors, navy blue is the only one which can ever compete with black, it has all the same qualities,” Christian Dior wrote in The Little Dictionary of Fashion.
Chiuri delved into the 1949 Dior archives with this in mind to produce a wearable display that reinterpreted the famed “Chevrier” look in jackets, skirts, bombers and capes—all in various tones of blue.
There was much nostalgia to the retro gowns, which often were ankle-length, gathered at the waist, and topped with the classic postwar beret rendered in leather.
Ample hoods that defined the aesthetic were inspired by the tunics of clerics.
But the bygone days were shot with the contemporary. The hoods came across streetwise and sporty.
Luxury velvet and taffeta, popular in Monsieur Dior’s era, meanwhile were fashioned in funky sheens and modern cosmic embroideries.
And humble denim, which interspersed with the haute-fashion nostalgia, reinforced the contradiction of high-versus-low.
(Blue, the program notes highlighted, was the color of royalty and the working man.)
There were some standout looks.
A severe, geometric shawl in navy-black—the piece de resistance—looked like a contemporary reworking of a 1940s glamour puss stole.
But the over use of hoods was a visual drag on many of the collection’s more delicate shapes.
(AP)
