S/S'23 Show Notes: At Dior, A Renaissance Show Inspired By Royalty
Maria Grazia Chiuri showed one of her airiest collections to date for Dior.
By Keng Yang Shuen,
It's become an established thing at Dior: every season, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri makes it a point to highlight the works of women thinkers, artists and artisans. For Spring/Summer 2023, it was a powerful aristocrat in particular who provided the spiritual framework for the collection – the Italian-born queen Catherine de Medici, who (through an arranged marriage with King Henry II) ruled over France in the 1500s.
As an outsider, de Medici was renowned for her political savviness, especially in a time where the court were heavily dominated by men (not so much different from now, eh?). According to the Dior press release, Maria Grazia Chiuri was fascinated by de Medici's political intelligence – as well as the sartorial innovations she pioneered or introduced to the French, such as platform shoes, the corset, and Burano lace.
There are some parallels to be read here, what with Chiuri's own Italian heritage and her current position as the head of an iconic French maison. Fittingly, Chiuri described this collection to be a conversation between France and Italy during post-show interviews with the media. Below, we take a look at how she crystallised this conversation.