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Maria Grazia Chiuri, first woman in front of Dior- Christian Louboutin: "Shoes create magic, illusion and desire"
What does patriarchy have to do with the weather emergency? Some of the attendees at the Dior parade asked yesterday in Paris. Inside a tent in the Tullerias, the French maison deployed neons with phrases that reflected on situations of oppression towards women: “When women go on strike, the world stops,” “Female love is unpaid work "," We are clitoral women "or the aforementioned" Patriarchy is a climatic emergency ", an allusion to the fact that the exploitation of natural resources and the labor force have historically been carried out by men.
This peculiar scenario is the result of the collaboration of Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior, and the feminist collective Claire Fontaine, famous for placing these luminous and uncomfortable slogans in public places. Chiuri, who in her couture parade last January already collaborated with the artist Judy Chicago to achieve a similar purpose, has been since her entry into Dior four years ago making feminism her leitmotiv , or what is the same, giving the back to the imaginary of a house that had always been linked to romanticism and more traditional femininity.
On the catwalk, however, the result was much less combative than on the walls. Inspired by photos of her youth (in which, according to the designer herself, her clothes were a way of expressing rebellion) and taking as a main reason the pattern of paintings that so fascinated Christian Dior (for being, as he himself wrote, “Elegant, easy and always timely”), Chiuri has signed a collection in which black jacket suits were mixed with British-style coats, steamy dresses, flat boots, diamond jumpers or white jeans. Since its debut at home, its formula has always been that: to make highly commercial collections in which a fabric or a pattern exerts as the only conductive thread between an endless number of disparate garments and in which the theoretical weight rests on two pillars; the staging and a t-shirt with a message that changes every season. Next fall is I say I (I say I), the slogan of the Italian feminist Carla Lonzi.
With the exception of Dior and some other brand of weight, the first days of Paris Fashion Week, which began Monday with a huge retrospective of Louboutin in the palace of the Porte Dorée, are devoted almost exclusively to young brands and / or independent demonstrating that the paths to position themselves within the traditional and corseted Parisian landscape are now very different from those of a decade ago.
Nigeria is running to be what Japan was in the eighties or Belgium in the nineties: the favorite country of those who look in fashion for more than just recurring names or generalized trends. With one difference, the country wants its textile tradition to be a possible way of development for a large part of its population, and has been trying to place its creative quarry on the international map for a couple of years.
Kenneth Ize, who was a finalist last year in the prestigious LVMH award and who debuted yesterday in Paris is perhaps one of its greatest exponents. The parade, which opened the Imaan Hammam model and closed Adwoa Aboah and Naomi Campbell, revolved around what is until now the hallmark of the creative: the Asoke fabric, a traditional multicolored striped fabric finished in fringes (and made by groups of artisan women) that shaped bomber jackets, maxi bags, blazer jackets or sweatshirts. In short, the centennial tradition molded according to contemporary codes. A recipe that now, with the issue of cultural appropriation still occupying pages, is emerging as a feasible and very timely alternative, despite the success of this new wave of African creators in Paris (to which the South African Thebe Magugu joins) It is still a construction project boosted by the exoticism that it gives off to many European and Asian buyers and publishers.
Others, such as Coperni, the brand of the former creative directors of Courrèges, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, have fed their success through an ingenious Instagram and a good handful of celebrities before launching on the traditional catwalk with their proposals of minimalist tailoring and impeccable But if there is someone who adjusts to the current times, it is Marine Serre, although perhaps in spite of it. The French designer, who has always been inspired by different dystopian situations, presented her collection of balaclavas and masks in full social panic for the coronavirus and before a cohort of fans dressed from top to bottom with their garments curdled with half moons (something that, to be a young and independent brand, it is quite a feat). This time Serre has used Dune , the mythical novel by Frank Herbert, to speak, through clothing, social classes, power, uniforms and the questionable progress offered by technological devices.
Catwalk with mask
On Sunday, panic broke out in Milan after Giorgio Armani decided to make his parade behind closed doors after the cases of coronavirus in northern Italy. Yesterday and today in Paris some presentations have been canceled, it has been announced that Asian firms will not parade this edition and the stands, even those of the most exclusive parades, are half full due to buyers and the media (in their mostly Chinese and Italian) who have decided not to go to Paris. For now, the parades continue their course, but some brands will decide what to do the day before their show. This time, unlike what happened with Armani, it will be the audience that decides. With almost a third less than the usual guests, nobody wants to risk celebrating a parade at medium gas. On the street, however, the atmosphere is absolutely normal. There are many more masks and disinfectant gels in presentations than in bars or museums. It will be because many of the attendees have already passed through Milan before arriving here, or because fashion, you know, is a system full of rituals. Even these.