Paris Fashion Week: Dior Combines Culture And Commerce For Fall 2024

The Christian Dior Fall ‘24 collection underscored the maison's credentials as both commercial powerhouse and creator of culture.

While recently launched Apple Original series The New Look explored the post war birth of Christian Dior as an haute couture house, Marie Grazia Chiuri’s Fall ’24 collection invoked the maison’s pivotal introduction of ready-to-wear line Miss Dior some twenty years later in 1967.

The decade’s irreverent spirit, and silhouettes favored by then artistic director Marc Bolan were introduced by way of peppy abbreviated trench coats and a-lines that swung in time with navel grazing gold chains. Likewise the the overarching commercial sensibility of Monsieur Dior that Bolan perpetuated—by way of the merchandising.

In contrast to the collection’s muted tonal color palette, a supersized Miss Dior logo, dubbed a “manifesto-signature” by the show notes, came emblazoned across coats, skirts and bags and insinuated itself more subtly via metal hardware on bags and footwear. The design riffed off a Bolan era scarf print.

Trench coats and derivations thereof were also a key motif of the Dior Spring 24 Haute Couture collection that bowed in January and, as such, represent a leit motif uniting the verticals and underscoring house messaging.

In tune with ‘60s notions of sexual liberation, the show was soundtracked by strains of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus”—originally written for and unofficially recorded with Brigitte Bardot and later, officially with Jane Birkin, arguably the Jisoo of her day.

Both versions involved heavy breathing, rumored to have been elicited by heavy petting in the sound booth.

Alongside said current Dior Maison ambassador Blackpink artist Jisoo, the show’s celebrity guest list also included Maisie Williams who played Monsieur Dior’s sister Catherine in The New Look.

A selection of the series costumes are currently on display in an installation at Galerie Dior, the house’s central Paris museum. They were created in close collaboration with the house which opened up its archives to the production team.

However, following last week’s announcement of LVMH’s new entertainment division, 22 Montaigne, such instance of ad hoc cultural marketing is now set to be formalized.

According to an article by WWD, the division led by LVMH’s head of image and environment Antoine Arnault, and Anish Melwani, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH North America, will explore opportunities for LVMH brands to collaborate with production companies on content spotlighting its brands as creators of culture.

The venture is not without its precedent. Prior to founding his Maison, Monsieur Dior opened two galleries and, as a couturier, continued in his support of the arts. Current Dior artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri has followed in his footsteps, using her platform to spotlight women artists from Judy de Chicago to Sarah Moon and Niki de Saint Phalle—many of which collaborations are also on show at the Galerie.

This season Chiuri chose Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, who conceived the show’s centerpiece, “Of Bodies, Amour and Cages”—an installation exploring the female body via cane sculptures simultaneously representing protection and constriction.

The work or Karnataka born Kulkarni explores the relationship between the female body and urban public and private spaces.