Inside SCAD Lacoste, Where Dior and DRIFT Transform the South of France

The Savannah College of Art and Design opened a residential study-abroad program in Lacoste, France, in 2002. For over two decades, students from the school’s Savannah and Atlanta campuses have flocked to the historic village’s far-flung corners to study and gain inspiration for film, fashion, sculpture, fiber, and more projects. In addition to classes and workshops, SCAD Lacoste also welcomes visitors to the SCAD Lacoste Gallery and its SCAD FASH Lacoste museum—previously featuring exhibitions in its gallery spaces by designers like Christian Lacroix and Jean Paul Gaultier—film screenings, funded alumni ateliers, and more. 

At the start of the busy spring semester, Whitewall joined SCAD in Lacoste to tour its campus and experience its latest programming, including the opening of two exhibitions—“Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés” (May 8–September 28) and a permanent installation, “Unfold,” by DRIFT; walkthroughs and masterclasses with alumni atelier participants, including painter Keith Crowley, fiber artist and broom maker Julia Jarrett, and fashion designer Zimo Yan of ZIMO; a tour of its various student spaces, including classrooms and the ShopSCAD boutique, and more. 

“Bienvenue au printemps en Provence, where students and alumni, visitors and villagers alike, flock to see SCAD Lacoste in full bloom!” said Paula Wallace, SCAD founder and president. “A symphony of springtide events awaits you at the most illustrious locale in global higher ed: Christian Dior’s opulent Jardins Rêvés exhibition at SCAD FASH Lacoste, a curated showcase of imaginative designs by SCAD fashion alumni, an immersive installation by DRIFT en route to our Promenade de Sculptures, and astounding displays of invention on our SCAD Alumni Atelier Rue des Artistes. Join us this May in the South of France for spectacular art, fashion, architecture, and history.”

Where Nature Meets Data

For DRIFT’s newly commissioned “Unfold” opening, we joined SCAD Museum of Art’s chief curator, Daniel Palmer, for a firsthand look. “We are honored to inaugurate DRIFT’s new site-specific installation Unfold at our historic SCAD Lacoste location,” remarked Palmer. “This collaboration is the thoughtful product of the artists’ dialogue with the region and the creative, growth-focused ethos of the university, which the artists have translated into a breathtaking and memorable immersive experience. We are certain that this one-of-a-kind installation will inspire our students and visitors to SCAD Lacoste for years to come.”

“Unfold” caters to the individual. Inside a tiny historic room carved into a cliffside that anchors the Portail des Chèvres entrance to Lacoste, DRIFT reveals one contemporary lounge chair. Guests are encouraged to lie down, place the palms of their hands on the armchair’s panels, and allow AI to gather their unique biometrics. By measuring data points, like temperature and heart rate, the DRIFT-created program—making use of biological, ecological, and digital design—then projects an audio-visual representation of your human profile onto the ceiling in the form of a flower. True to the studio’s ethos, exploring nature and its link to humankind, the installation also connects to the region’s rich nature, where gorgeous buds like poppies, lavender, and almond blossoms bloom.   

“On the hillside, you see animals and nature working together in harmony, and then you zoom out, and you see the large mountains,” Ralph Nauta, co-founder of DRIFT, told us at the exhibition. “That scale is what we always try to incorporate in our work. When you zoom in on the dandelions, you see all the separate hairs; you see the intricacy of the work. And then when you zoom out, you see the larger vision of tech and nature merging together. Even now, it becomes almost like a cityscape. Here we have that intimacy, and it kind of forces us to look closely at nature again.”

Inside Dior’s Garden at SCAD Lacoste

Further into the town at the SCAD FASH Lacoste museum, we then met with the director of SCAD fashion exhibitions, Rafael Brauer Gomes, for a private look at “Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés.” Inside, the two-floor presentation immersed us into the Dior universe, where haute couture garments, accessories, and artifacts from 1905 to 2025—like illustrations from catalogues, photographs, and even textiles created by Christian Dior himself—reigned. The show was inspired by the founding couturier’s love for flowers and gardens, linking to his tranquil childhood home in Granville, exhibiting nearly 30 garments and over 60 accessories and perfumes. On the first floor, garments from Monsieur Christian Dior and each of his successors were illuminated, revealing the brand’s early focus on being a lifestyle brand and the hand-crafted details it infused to make it one of the world’s most regarded ateliers. Dresses by Christian Dior himself, like the unmissable Musique piece from Fall/Winter 1956, joined contemporary creations by Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri, among others, illustrating their unique design language inspired by craft, culture, art, and more.

“It has been an incredible honor to collaborate with Dior on this exclusive exhibition for SCAD. The curation of this exhibition represents a unique intersection of artistry, craftsmanship, and innovation, showcasing the timeless elegance and bold creativity that define Dior’s legacy,” said Gomes. “Notably, this exhibition celebrates the work of all the visionary designers who have contributed to the House of Dior, from Christian Dior himself to the present day. It is our hope that this exhibition sparks new ideas, fosters creative exploration, and encourages the next generation of artists to push the boundaries of fashion and design.”

Hélène Starkman, the exhibition curator for Christian Dior Couture, then led us from the first floor to the second level, passing iconic illustrations by René Gruau throughout the stairway. In addition to sweeping gowns and headpieces by milliner Stephen Jones, the upstairs presentation also featured the brand’s coveted “Cabinet of Curiosities”—a selection of pieces in individual vignettes, arranged under inviting light in a glass bookshelf. Lesser-seen perfume bottles—like Diorissimo, created by Monsieur Dior in 1956—joined Saddle handbags, Dior heels, leather opera gloves, and several floral-topped headbands, headdresses, and bonnets. 

“Flowers have always been at the heart of Christian Dior’s creations. Their shapes, ever-changing colors, minute details, all evoke memories of his joyful childhood in the Granville family home,” said Starkman. “When he became a couturier, it was in the gardens he had imagined for his country houses that he sketched his collections. He needed this return to nature, far away from the Paris hustle and bustle, to create the fashion of tomorrow. When he died in 1957, flowers became one of the most prominent inspirations for his successors, who each wove their own floral language. Today, it is a real pleasure to be able to exhibit the Dior creations so close to nature, in an environment that the founding couturier himself would have loved.” 

Adorning both spaces, too, were immersive scenes of laser-cut paper flowers created by the Spain-based design studio Wanda Barcelona. Created by Inti Velez Botero, Daniel Mancini, and Iris Joval in 2007, the company has been a collaborator of Dior’s since 2013, creating exquisite atmospheres of handcrafted origami-style flowers in dialogue with those found on many Dior garments and accessories—from roses to lush leaves. For the installation, 16 skilled artisans worked for three months in Barcelona to design and draw the flowers, then vectorize and laser-cut them to petal perfection. Afterward, leaves, petals, pistils, sepals, and stems were then carefully assembled by hand using tweezers. 

“We crafted more than 4,000 flowers for this wondrous garden,” Mancini told Whitewall. “We designed three new beautiful species for this exhibition—poppies, violets, and brunneras—which are all present in the dresses and are a perfect match for the flowers we used in previous exhibitions, like roses, wisteria, lily of the valley, creeping Jenny, and mind-your-own business.”

Before we departed from the gorgeous Luberon region, SCAD also previewed Musée SCAD Lacoste, which will soon chronicle its fascinating history in the historic village. Opening this summer, the new space will bridge visual storytelling and creative studies by showcasing a collection of artifacts, visuals, and city models that illustrate the school’s footprint in town. Bridging time and space, art and fashion, education and global perspectives, SCAD Lacoste continues to celebrate the energy, vision, and creativity valued around the world today