A beautiful and elegant way of showing our textile cultural wealth was the catwalk that the French fashion house Christian Dior presented on May 20, in Mexico, where it showed its collection Cruise 2024 in collaboration with local artisans and which, by the way, is beautiful.
This collection includes women’s garments with embroidery and fabrics inspired by Mexican communities, as well as other symbolisms and colors that evoke not only the textile wealth of our country, but also some emblematic characters such as Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington.
The firm’s chief designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, was in charge of presenting the beautiful designs on the catwalk, among which stood out traditional flower embroideries in bright colors, such as the traditional Mexican rose, as well as in more sober colors, such as black and white
The catwalk took place at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, a place that was not chosen at random, because it was precisely in that colonial building where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera met. According to Dior’s official statement, Mexico is “a constellation of places that arouse emotions”, therefore, having Kahlo as a source of inspiration for the collection, it was to be expected that the emblematic building where she studied would be the scene of the parade.
In addition, within the collection, they also highlighted the feminist symbolisms that the creative director of Dior used, since she was clear in ensuring that “we would see something different from her collection Cruise 2019″. In this way, butterflies were present in embroidery, necklaces, accessories, corsets, prints, etc., representing metamorphosis and its evolutionary meaning. In Mexico, the monarch butterfly is a powerful symbol due to its annual migratory journey.
Throughout the collection, the butterfly was the common thread that led us to other important nods to Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington, with a strong message of the problem of gender violence that Latin America faces, this with the musical accompaniment of Vivir Quintana, with themes like you deserve a love and fearless song.
As part of the inspiration for Maria Grazia Chiuri, in different dresses, we observe Frida’s resilient spirit as a guide for the collection, since they highlight the flora, fauna and still life that the artist used in many of her paintings where He narrated his pain. Also, as if this were not enough, some of the models wore characteristic hairstyles of the Mexican painter.
Finally, it should be noted that, unlike other brands that have been denounced for cultural appropriation by the Mexican Ministry of Culture, this Dior collection in which Chiuri paid tribute to the country’s textile wealth with long skirts, cotton lace, Hemp, among others, had the collaboration of master craftsmen who worked on the technical nature of the textile tradition in their workshops.