Rihanna and Natalie Portman dressed to the nines. Jennifer Lawrence opted for jeans. And most of the stars passed unnoticed amid the sea of celebrities awash inside Paris’ Rodin Museum on Friday.
The great equalizer for them all was a chance to glimpse one of the year’s biggest fashion spectacles: the hugely-awaited debut from Christian Dior’s first female designer.
But were the high expectations met?
Being the first woman in history to head up one of the most influential dressers of women in history, Maria Grazia Chiuri certainly had to make a statement during her first Dior show.
Make it she did.
Most debuts at storied fashion labels pay homage to the house DNA — and this should especially be the case at grand Dior, which saved post-war French fashion with 1947’s groundbreaking “New Look.”
But in Friday’s show, Grazia Chiuri, the former Valentino designer, was having none of it.
Gone were the references to the famed Bar Jacket, the full, thick A-line skirt, and any flavors of the post-War style.
In its place was what the program notes termed a whole “new lexicon” of style, and Grazia Chiuri did indeed give the collection her unique stamp.
Sadly, the designs themselves fell a little flat and not sufficiently vibrant to live up to the bold move away from the DNA.
To her credit, Grazia Chiuri made a creative attempt to explore gender boundaries by channeling the uniforms of fencers with quilted embroidered combat jackets, cropped sporty pants and, yes, high fashion sneakers and knee-high sneaker boots.
It was an intelligent way of highlighting the concept of gender in the Dior show — given greater resonance by the fact she’s the first woman designing at the house.

Source: Arab News