Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri Breaks Into Costume Design

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut in the world of costume design left a lasting impression with the Dior creative director creating memorable looks that transcended the ballet fashion trend that has taken over in the past several years.  The collection’s operatic success showcased Dior’s chic influence while still maintaining the integrity of the performance’s narrative. Conducive to the ballet’s elegant style of dance, Chiuri designs were both conceptually traditional in their allowance for movement and stand out in their innovation and uniquely fashionable attire.  Drawing from silhouettes popular of the 1940s and 1950s, the costumes exuded the style of contemporary Dior, while still maintaining the traditional functionality of ballet-wear, including the clothing’s uniquely emotion-evoking appearance.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Italian designer's breaking into this new genre of design is the simplicity with which she approached the concept of dance.  Describing her childhood infatuation with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chiuri comments on the universality of dance: “It’s an expression of freedom. Everybody dances. It’s a natural attitude. If you look at children around the world, they all dance. It’s very human.”

In the wake of her operatic debut as a costume designer, Chiuri took Dior’s audience around her native Rome, lending a behind the scenes look at the designer’s efforts that went into creating a performance of this scale. It is clear from the video that Chiuri’s personal narrative is interwoven into each of the pieces she created, adding an element of nostalgia to an already dazzling display of creative inventiveness.