Dior Celebrates Goddess Gowns, 1920s Glamour

Dior’s designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, drew inspiration from the upcoming Olympics for her latest haute couture show, staged in the garden of the Musée Rodin near Esplanade des Invalides, where the Olympic archery competitions will soon take place.

This season’s Dior collection embraced Olympian themes in a grand and classical style, featuring goddess gowns with asymmetric necklines that exposed shoulders and cascading skirts. Despite the opulence, Chiuri prioritized comfort over constraint, rejecting traditional boning and heavy structures. “I am obsessed with comfort,” Chiuri remarked, emphasizing her aim to create dresses that enhance the body’s natural feel rather than altering its shape.

Chiuri’s moodboard included a photograph of early 20th-century athlete Alice Milliat, who championed women’s inclusion in competitive sports and established the first Women’s Olympic Games in 1922. Milliat’s legacy is now honored in France, with a hall at a new sports arena named after her.

The collection interwove classical elements with 1920s influences, seen in the jersey fabric, silk fringing, and twinkling bugle beads. The opening models donned elegant evening gowns with drapery over racer-back tank tops, accessorized with gold bangles and gladiator sandals. This fusion of classical elegance and sportswear symbolized women’s freedom and empowerment. Chiuri noted, “When they invented the bicycle, women stopped wearing corsets,” underscoring fashion’s evolution alongside societal changes.

Re-reported from the article originally published in THE GUARDIAN.