Maria Grazia Chiuri’s objective for this Dior spring-summer 2025 ready-to-wear collection is to recapitulate the meaning of the garment, as if each model has been given the chance to speak and reveal the work preceding its own construction. Pushing back the boundaries between the oeuvre itself and the artistic process, the Creative Director aims to bring fashion back to its origins and emphasize the relationship connecting the body and what dresses it, between intention and function. With this in mind, she has assembled and reinterpreted cuts from the archives, starting with the Amazone dress dreamed up by Christian Dior for autumn-winter 1951-1952, which takes her to this legendary female figure, known for her strength of spirit, a reference point for the notion of an autonomous, courageous femininity.
Choreographing archives implies forming links between several elements, before revisiting and subsequently reviving them in an unprecedented way. This new, resolutely graphic line plays on the contrast between black and white: checks, horizontal and vertical traits celebrate the Miss Dior logo, allongated to the extreme.
White pieces, such as shirts, are paired with black skirts, pants and dresses, declaring their character in this interplay of dualities. The bright red accents of the bomber jackets serve as a counterpoint. The embroidery – which here and there becomes butterflies or fringes – provides shimmering metallic punctuations. Jersey accompanies lightweight evening dresses, and sports shirts, simple or enhanced with shiny embellishments, everyday protagonists in their own right.
This year, the body, fashion and sport are words that, thanks notably to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, have (re)given signification to gender equality, inclusivity, respect and acceptance of one’s own limits. Maria Grazia Chiuri thus asked SAGG Napoli, an artist who uses archery in her work, to perform in the catwalk space. “May the building of a strong mind and a strong body be the greatest work I have ever made” is one of the emblematic phrases appearing on the set.
A modern Amazon, SAGG Napoli sees fashion as a visual attribute, an affirmation of her athletic shape. She tackles one of the oldest disciplines – archery – which demands the harmonization of body and mind.
On the runway, where time is suspended from that of fashion, the collection exalts the force and assertive power of contemporary femininity.
