Since taking over at Christian Dior in 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri has sought to reframe the historic house—helmed by men until her appointment—as a feminist fashion brand. Up until now, she’s done so through Insta-worthy slogan T-shirts and by teaming up with standout female creatives, from South Korean sculptor Lee Bul to Colombian textile artist Olga de Amaral.
For her Cruise 2020 collection—a collaboration with some of Africa’s finest designers and makers—Chiuri also tapped African-American contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas and LVMH Prize-winning British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner to reinterpret Christian Dior’s iconic Bar jacket. Both women, representing two different generations (Thomas is in her late-forties, Wales Bonner in her late-twenties), are renowned for addressing issues of race, identity and gender.
“I wanted to continue the [Lady Dior Art] project with the New Look because it is the most iconic silhouette of Mr Dior, ” Chiuri tells Vogue ahead of the show, hosted at Marrakech’s El Badi Palace. “I wanted Grace and Mickalene to add a different point of view to this silhouette, like I did when I first arrived at Dior.”
Here, Thomas and Wales Bonner tell Vogue how they feel about reinterpreting such an emblematic design.
Mickalene Thomas
Image: Alastair Nicol
“This was a little out of my territory… I love fashion, but I had to rely solely on the direction of my partner, Racquel Chevremont, because she actually wears women’s clothes. I was really thinking about what she would want to wear.
“I wanted my take on the Bar jacket to be very sophisticated, but I also wanted something fun—hence the flowing, iridescent skirt. I like having a patchwork version of Monet’s landscape integrated into the body, allowing the jacket to be the silhouette of a body set against this beautiful landscape that’s coming from the back and shoulders.
“My practice pulls from cultural history, French Impressionism specifically in this case, and I wanted to create a wearable performance costume. It is both art and fashion: there will be people who want it as a limited-edition piece, as an [art] object, which they don’t wear it at all; and then you’ll have someone who will wear it as fashion, perhaps with the Lady Dior bag I created. And that’s the intent.
“[This project] is everything. It is very empowering and it gives me a sense of accountability and agency, allowing me to really set the precedent for what is possible.”
Grace Wales Bonner
Image: Alastair Nicol
Image: Alastair Nicol
“I remember hearing about how radical the [Bar suit] silhouette was in school. It was one of the first things I learned about fashion, really. At first, I felt quite relaxed about [reinterpreting the Bar jacket], but I went to the Dior exhibition in London for a second time and quickly realised, historically, how important and what a great responsibility it really was… I also feel a responsibility for me, to reflect myself within that history as well.
“I got the chance to look at those early Bar jackets made by Christian Dior in the archive and that was very inspiring and magical, because they are so elegant and pure and quite simple, but they carry a lot of emotion and sexuality. I was really inspired by that spirit.
“For me, it was about creating a meeting point between two worlds for a new form of luxury; about exploring a point of hybridity, which is something I always try to do with my work, but [this time] through an emblem that represents European luxury. It’s about using techniques—embroidery, raffia, crochet—that feel reminiscent of Caribbean craft traditions within the silhouette.
“I never get to see my own work on the runway, because I’m always backstage, so it will be interesting to experience it as part of the audience [at the Dior Cruise 2020 show].”
Also read:
Watch the Dior cruise 2020 show live from Marrakech here
Why you need to know the story behind Princess Diana and this Dior bag
Deconstructing Dior’s AW19 with Maria Grazia Chiuri
The post Dior Cruise 2020: How the new look of iconic Bar jacket came to be appeared first on VOGUE India.
from Fashion – VOGUE India http://bit.ly/2UPJGSP
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