By questioning the form and function of the dress, architect Bernard Rudofsky’s refessions gave Maria Grazia Chiuri a new conceptual vision of haute couture, as an art whose purpose is to dress bodies that are always different, with an identity own. It is precisely based on this relationship put back at the center by Rudofsky between habit and living, between fashion and architecture, two disciplines whose concepts relate to the human body and its proportions, which Maria Grazia Chiuri decides to show off the autumn haute couture collection winter 2019-2020 in the Hôtel particulier of Dior. This original building of the Maison, number 30 of Avenue Montaigne, is the place where the various Artistic Directors worked closely with the ateliers.
Among the different inspirations for this collection, there are the works of Penny Slinger, feminist artist author of the set designer of the show. Defnite from the grain of black and white, these works tell the alchemic force of fire, air and water, at the center of a harsh and mysterious nature inhabited by female creatures. These figures always support the weight of the world, like a contemporary interpretation of caryatids, sculptures that take shape in women’s bodies and support the architecture of ancient temples or decorate Parisian buildings * dressed in pure-line tunics, like the only dress white designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri for a collection that explore the multi-faceted power of black.