We never thought we see the day Dior does day-glo, but today the brand’s autumn/ winter 22 show in Paris opened with a surprising look.
Stepping out onto the unlit runway was a model wearing a bodysuit covered in a snaking glow-in the dark pattern which, once the lights went up, looked to be created from a form of glow-in-the-dark piping.
Then came a collection that featured some of the most performance-focussed, high-tech pieces we have seen from Maria Grazia Chiuri during her Dior tenure.
The collection was called Disturbing Beauty, and it was created in partnership with Italian start-up D-Air lab, a company that specialises in making high-tech protective garments for the ski and motorsport industry, in addition to wearable air bag vests for protecting workers.
The partnership gave rise to a “new era of clothing with performance enhanced tenfold by new technologies,” read the show notes, which also noted that Maria Grazia Chiuri’s focus had been on a time so futuristic it is “post-humanity.”
The clothes that followed were an unusual mix of Dior classics and spacey elements.
Dior’s iconic Bar Jacket, for example, was reimagined with a grayscale painterly mesh and had an inbuilt heating devide, similar to that which D-Air Lab had developed for its Antarctica Suit, which was designed to provide people working in extreme climatic conditions.
Motocross clothing was a recurring theme. A black lace dress comes with white shoulder pads akin to those typically built into racing drivers suits and boldly coloured motorcycle gloves with technical panels and reinforcements make for unexpected accessories for 1950s-inspired A-line wool midi skirts.
Rihanna, who was sat front row in a sheer black lace babydoll dress and leather trench, is a likely customer for the tyre-inspired corsets and cropped motorcycle jackets in shades of punchy lime green and white.
Overall the collection brimmed with classic Dior silhouettes and brand emblems, high-tech-ified into new-age silhouettes. A new new look, if you will.
