The Runway Rundown: Dior Keeps The Spirit Of The Olympic Games Alive With Its SS25 Collection
The Paris Olympic and Paralympic games may be over, but its legacy is still very much alive in the city. For one, I don’t remember ever seeing the streets of Paris so clean. And, on the first day of Paris Fashion Week, Christian Dior kick-started the last leg of the fashion month show circuit with an extravaganza that continued the city's summer of sports into the autumn and the new season collections.
The connection between sports, fashion and the body clearly left a lasting impression on creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, who herself was involved in the games over the summer: Dior’s parent company, LVMH, sponsored the event, with Chiuri dressing talents including Lady Gaga, Céline Dion and Aya Nakamura for the opening ceremony performances.
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The mega-event, watched by tens of millions around the world, served as a reminder of the influence and power France’s biggest heritage fashion houses hold; a reminder that was also distinct at the SS25 show. Dior, which reportedly racks up annual sales figures around around £5.5 billion, regularly counts some of the biggest celebrities among its show attendees, but this season, in addition to names like Nakamura, Jennifer Garner and brand ambassador Natalie Portman, the front row welcomed France’s first lady Brigitte Macron, who took her seat right next to LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault.
The starting point for the brand’s latest collection was the Amazone dress that Mr Dior himself created for his AW51 collection, evolved to embody Chiuri’s signature take on contemporary femininity: high-fashion clothes made for living in.
'I reflect on this idea because they were the first women to wear pants and the idea that you had to somehow renounce your femininity,' Chiuri said at a special preview ahead of the show. 'Mr Dior created construction for women which was more conservative - women moved their bodies less at that time. My obsession is making pieces which are easy to wear, using technology but also couture know-how.'
The result was distinctly sporty, mixing in athleisure pieces in a monochromatic colour palette (save for a dash of sparkle here, flashes of nude and red there) with tailored looks in classic Dior silhouettes and the floaty evening dresses that Chiuri . Models wore knee-high lace-up trainers evocative of gladiator sandals and kitten-heel sock boots with racing stripes, teamed with cut-out bodies, relaxed tracksuit pants and Formula 1-style leathers with checkerboard detailing.
The show opened with performance artist Sofia Ginevra Giannì, better known as her professional moniker Sagg Napoli, who uses archery in her work; she set the tone for the collection, firing arrows down the runway to kickstart the models’ march around the room.
'The artist says you must align your mind with your body to be strong,' said Chiuri. 'She says that when you don’t hit the target, it’s not the problem of the technique but because your mind and body are not aligned. In some ways she [Sagg Napoli] embodies the modern Amazon.'
Additional reporting by Avril Mair.
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