One gallant leap for mode kind – the old fashioned way

LECCE – Pizzica dance, Negramaro music and Medieval gowns were displayed in this small town in Puglia, located in the heel of Italy and on the heels of Milan’s digital fashion week as Maria Grazia Chiuri created an enchanting live fashion show using the town’s Duomo to showcase the Dior Cruise 2021 collection.

“Three shows in one that gave me fond memories of my grandmother,” said local fashion shop retailer Giula Amabile. “This is something the south has needed after this long lockdown.”

“With Dior the red zone goes out of style” was one of the graffiti messages spray- painted on a nearby church the night before the 56-year-old Italian designer hit the catwalk that took 12 days to assemble and featured a musical gazebo, 30,000 coloured light-bulbs that spelled out several messages including “clothed with strength and dignity.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CC9OxNZpa_8/

The live-streaming event with invited guests was a reboot after being cancelled in May due to the pandemic outbreak and was expected to have gained more than 20 million digital viewers since previous couture and men’s shows both have claimed to hit that number earlier this summer.

“Christian Dior founded his Maison in 1947 after the war, and in the same way it is emblematic for the Maison today to give new hope to fashion in this particular moment of difficulty thanks to this fashion show,” said Chiuri in a press statement.

The cast of cool, young models paraded for 20 minutes in medieval folklore dresses, vertical tunics, veils worn around the neck and hair, tight-waist girdles that snuggly fit the hips topped with coronets and fairy-tale-like crowns. The featured colours were earthy-tones, ivory white, and off-white, burgundy red, olive green, brown and charcoal black to accentuate the vertical ranging from plain flat colours to wildly cathedral pattern designs.

Targeted to the European market, the real down-to earth designs are buy-now-wear-forever dresses. North American women, however, may find value in tracing their ethnic heritage and adding a Dior dress to their Bohemian wardrobe.

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/resort-2021/christian-dior

https://www.amica.it/2020/07/22/dior-la-sfilata-cruise-2021-diretta-live-streaming-da-lecce/

Written by

Vincent Towerpast

English Language Consultant for Business English courses and Journalist - Foreign Correspòndent