The Musée Rodin gardens in Paris were bustling with fashion and art patrons yesterday, as Christian Dior returned to its mainstay location to present its stunning Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Typical for the maison’s shows, the atmosphere was illuminated by inspired creations across its walls—this time, paintings on cloth by the Rome-based Italian artist Isabella Ducrot filled the space.
Isabella Ducrot’s “Big Aura” for Christian Dior
Entitled “Big Aura,” the installation was embroidered by Chanakya School of Craft & Atelier, centered around 23 oversized dresses—some spanning over 16 feet tall, reflecting the culture of Ottoman sultans, studied by Ducrot. The were set against a thatched-like backing of paint in black stripes, irregular and redolent of bend and warp. The collaboration and title was something Dior’s Creative Director of women’s collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri, related to, as haute couture pieces are much about the person they’re created for and their a personal aura.
Photo by Adrien Dirand, scenography by Isabella Ducrot and Chanakya School of Craft, courtesy of Christian Dior.
Maria Grazia Chiuri Weaves in Inspiration
For Spring/Summer 2024, Chiuri looked back into the house’s archives and gained inspiration from the atelier and its resulting looks, capturing the spirit of their times. Designed by Monsieur Christian Dior himself, the La Cigale dress included in the Fall/Winter 1952 collection revealed sculptural construction of moiré fabric, which began to recontextualize couture.
Photo by Adrien Dirand, courtesy of Christian Dior.
In her latest line, Chiuri revisited this look and reimagined it in a new palette of gold, white, burgundy, green, and gray, reproducing the line of the iconic 1950s dress with new layers, cut-outs, and silhouettes. Architectural and contemporary, dresses, skirts, pants, and coats are seen in both exaggerated and classic shapes, as well as in an array of materials—like cotton and silk.
Photo by Laura Sciacovelli, courtesy of Christian Dior.
Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2024 Details
Dresses embodied flowing forms—like a feather cape over a double organza dress, and a black velvet look that drifted in the back as the model glided down the runway. Other details, like embroidery and the Millefiori motif, joined polka-dot prints, pearl accessories, belts worn at the waist, and streamlined monochromatic looks.
Special for the show was the release of a 2008 poem by Patrizia Cavalli, penned for Ducrot, named To Weave is Human. An excerpt read:
Dear readers, here we weave for you a play:
Isabella Ducrot conceived the plot
and cast its stars: the Weft and Warp of cloth.
(To tell the truth, the sequence is reversed
because it is the Warp that must come first –
in practice and by rights he leads the way.
Indeed, he could remain there by himself,
though what would he amount to on his own?
Without the Weft he’s on the stage alone
in brawny parallel lines – bored to death.
This is why each Warp is driven mad
wanting to meet the Weft as soon as he can;
and she is just as desperate to be found.
For she – no, she can never stand alone –
alone she is nothing, no one, incomplete –
and fat and slack she falls, a lifeless thread.)
Photo by Adrien Dirand, scenography by Isabella Ducrot and Chanakya School of Craft, courtesy of Christian Dior.
