Dior Couture Spring 2024

A Midcentury Homage to Moiré Fabric

Fashion icon Maria Grazia Chiuri paid tribute to midcentury couture in her latest collection, which celebrated moiré fabric. In the postwar era, style icons like Babe Paley and C.Z. Guest epitomized polished elegance, and the streamlined designs of Raymond Loewy also defined the era. Christian Dior was among those who drew inspiration from this style, incorporating the aerodynamic curves of 1950s cars into his designs. The La Cigale dress, from his fall 1952 Profile line, is part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. The dress was built in "gray moiré, so heavy it looks like a pliant metal," and served as the basis for Chiuri's haute couture collection this season.

To make the material relevant to a modern clientele, Chiuri worked with a supplier near the silk capital of Lyon to produce a lighter version of the fabric. The collection features a range of items, from jackets, coats, and pants to evening gowns. Chiuri sculpted the exaggerated hipline of the Cigale dress into a ruby red bustier gown but also tamed the unwieldy material into a sensual drape on the neckline of a trench-inspired dress.

The collection also features checked gray wool skirt suits and minimal, inky black velvet evening dresses. Chiuri pointed out how pleating was used to shape one of her signature white Grecian goddess gowns, which can only be done in couture on the body of the client.

The moiré trend has already found an early adopter in Rihanna, who wore a shawl-collared black belted jacket and pencil skirt with a matching baseball cap to the show. Moiré, also known as watered silk, is a wavy fabric prized historically as a symbol of sovereignty.

The collection was set off by artist Isabella Ducrot's installation "Big Aura," featuring oversized dresses designed to illustrate the power of clothes. Celebrities like Juliette Binoche, Glenn Close, and Ben Mendelsohn attended the show.

As new designer biopics on platforms like Apple TV+ provide insight into the roots of haute couture, Chiuri reminds us that it's important to understand the time when a brand was born to truly understand fashion.