English Version | A Mexican love affair

31 Oct 2023
By Vogue Portugal in collaboration with Christian Dior

Arts Issue

For the Cruise 2024 collection, Christian Dior is exploring its relationship with Mexican culture. This link has existed since the beginnings of the Maison, but with Maria Grazia Chiuri's vision, inspiration transforms into collaboration.

Art is often thought of in a Western matrix, located somewhere between Greek statues and American soup cans. But outside this limiting geography, artistic expressions and traditions flourish, even in the shadow of global attention. For Christian Dior's Cruise 2024 collection, the Maison denounces notions of the peripheral and deepens its savoir-faire through a new lens. Based in Mexico, this is a true collaboration. Maria Grazia Chiuri has created a collection that not only draws inspiration from Mexican culture but also pays homage to those who make it their life. Through partnerships with teams of local artisans, Christian Dior highlights Mexican textile traditions as a way of ensuring their preservation. Although Mexican art is the focus of the Cruise 2024 collection, the Maison's relationship with this culture is not seasonal. This link is part of the brand's legacy. In his first collection, presented in 1947, Christian Dior expressed his admiration with a dress entitled Mexico. His interest in Mexican heritage never waned. In his subsequent collections, the designer would give his garments titles related to the country. The Mexique dress from the fall/winter 1951 collection stands out, a black tulle dress with delicate golden scales and a velvet bow supporting the neckline. Over time, the country ceased to be just a source of inspiration and became one of the centers of Christian Dior's global influence. Ambassadors, stores, tours: the relationship between the Maison and Mexican fashion was consummated. The mutual fascination has remained ever since. All of Monsieur Dior's successors have maintained a strong connection with Mexico, from Yves Saint Laurent to Maria Grazia Chiuri. The latter is responsible for the most recent reaffirmation of this affinity, with the Cruise 2024 collection.

Chiuri doesn't just translate the relationship between the Maison and the country's culture - she, instead, chooses to deepen this dynamic. The designer explores femininity as a symbol of strength and connection. For the Cruise 2024 collection, this bond is personified in Frida Khalo. The artist was not only an abstract inspiration but also an aesthetic one: Kahlo's identity permeates the entire collection. Voluminous dresses mirror the artist's dramatic paintings. The suits are references to the way she dressed in her youth. Like Chiuri, Khalo explored how femininity is communicated through fashion. At other times, the iconic artist's inspiration was revealed more subtly. Fancy velvet skirts create palettes of colors that evoke the worlds Kahlo painted. Chiuri doesn't just highlight the past of Mexican art, she also emphasizes its present. To this end, the maison collaborated with Elina Chauvet, an artist who builds installations intending to denounce femicide.

The Cruise 2024 collection is interpreted by the Italian designer as an opportunity to deepen the Maison's savoir-faire and, at the same time, promote the continuity of Mexican textile techniques. To produce the collection, Chiuri collaborated with numerous artisans and ateliers who gave it an idiosyncratic dimension. Christian Dior's historic estate is reinvented through partnerships with local Mexican communities. It's not just about clothes and accessories, the collection is the symbol of a shared imagination, a dialog that aims not only to disseminate Mexican artisan culture but also to preserve it.

Translated from the original in the Arts Issue, published November 2023. Full stories and credits in the print version.

Vogue Portugal in collaboration with Christian Dior By Vogue Portugal in collaboration with Christian Dior

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