With the Dior Print collection, the artistic director of the women’s collections and the creative director of Dior Joaillerie combined their talents for the first time on the catwalk in Taormina, Sicily. Alliance of Enlightenment, we are told.
Maria Grazia Chiuri and Victor de Castellane stand out at Dior headquarters in Paris on this autumn morning. The first, Roman, is the artistic director of Dior’s haute couture and women’s ready-to-wear collections. The second, from Paris, has been leading Dior fine jewelry for twenty-four years. Both love to imagine jewelry and clothing that is both luxurious and easy to wear. Combining fine stones and craftsmanship, precious fabrics and asymmetrical cuts, the present and the past, their creations are as technically virtuosic as they are visually light. Above all, they breathe life. In 2019, the two women initiated a creative dialogue with the aim of consolidating their knowledge at the podium. A perfect match.
From this exchange was born a luxurious collection that combines pieces of jewelry and dream dresses, crafted in a complex game of balance. Since then, other four-armed collections have seen the light of day, including the Dior Print, the latest to date to reflect the shared visions of these two designers. Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first woman to head the artistic direction of the house of Dior, continues to champion and direct the “new feminism”. In the same way, Victor de Castellane works to transform the concept of femininity. With a common artistic breath, these two talents, who share the same year of birth, shine the female creativity. Meet.
Video: Dior show, Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2023
Miss Figaro. – You create a duet of great creative freedom. What were the beginnings of your meeting?
Maria Grazia Chiuri. – I knew Victoire’s work before I arrived at Dior. I often stopped in front of the windows of the Place Vendôme store to admire his creations; I was amazed at the ingenuity of his design and choice of stone colors. When I was appointed artistic director of the house in 2016, I wanted to meet him and tell him that I would like to work with him. He was very welcoming.
Kastelyan’s victory. – I was very happy when I found out that a woman is taking over the reins of Dior’s fashion. I immediately liked Maria Grazia’s direct and spontaneous way of speaking. It was easy between us. Apart from this funny coincidence of our birthdays, Maria Grazia and I were meant to meet. We have a lot in common.
Find the ideal geometry between proportions, shapes and colors
Kastelian’s victory
What brings you closer in the way you work?
CGM We have a feminine way of looking at things that is not about gender, but about sensitivity. And then, we experience our work as pleasure. Often we imagine the creator as a tormented being, but this is a stereotype. For us, creativity is a joy that we want to convey.
VDC- You are right. it is rare to be happy in our environment. But you don’t have to be “dark” to be creative. Like you, I got even closer to fashion because it was an area of freedom and play, we started working very young. Imagine if we were to suffer for forty years.
What are your memories of your first collaborations?
CGM I accompanied Victoire in four Dior high jewelry collections. He showed me the pieces and I thought about the silhouettes that could sublimate them. Sometimes it was through a plunging neckline, others with a turtle neck that brought out the sparkle of the necklace. Creating together is interesting. It’s a bit like painting a canvas. you need to decide what the main theme is and make sure the eye falls on it. To be in the game of balances and egos. In this particular case, mine should be in the service of the gem.
VDC- I remember the first dresses you created for the Dior high jewelry exhibition. they were sober, with very pure harmony, and were available in black and flesh. Later in Shanghai we dared to mix fabric colors and very bright stones. Our task is to find the ideal geometry between proportions, shapes and colors.
CGM Balance is achieved through order and simplicity, not by piling on ornamentation.
The Gulf of Taormina in Sicily was the scene of a fashion show dedicated to the presentation of around one hundred jewels and haute couture dresses from the Dior Print collection. How did this place inspire you?
VDC- Taormina is a gem of insane beauty. We had the impression of being in a theatrical environment, dreamlike and out of time. The juxtaposition of jewelry and couture seems to have been magically combined.
CGM I am Italian and the landscapes of Sicily deeply inspire me. This fabulous setting clearly had an effect on us. Everything was imagined as a visual fairy tale with a journey through the park overlooking Mount Etna. The models had a sculptural, surreal edge, a la Giorgio De Chirico. These women paraded in long white dresses made of tulle, like in a pin, and the jewelry stood out beyond belief.
Victoire, the floral print of Dior’s 1948 dress inspired a necklace made up of multi-colored flowers. How did the idea come about?
VDC- For this show, I came up with the idea of transferring the art of prints from the Dior tradition to jewelry. I drew on drawings from the archives, like the striped and checked prints or the floral motifs on Miss Dior’s dress. For some pieces, such as a flexible necklace that reproduces interlaced multi-colored ribbons, I worked the centers with gemstones: emeralds, rubies, diamonds… and added flecks of opals, tourmalines, spinels, and others that come from India, Madagascar, and all over. In the whole world. To avoid the cacophony of patterns and shades, Maria Grazia chose not to use prints for the clothes.
Creative pursuits are often obsessive. What is haunting you right now?
CGM I am more and more obsessed with symbols and memory. Every object I create or wear must resonate with a moment in the past. Clothes, jewelry evoke memories. Showing her jewelry that she wears. for example, this necklace belongs to my grandmother, and this ring to my mother. They remind me of their strength. My grandmother lost her husband at the age of 38, who was killed by the Nazis during World War II. He did not remarry, and the unstable economic situation did not allow his daughters to go to school. So my mother had to work and marry young. He always regretted not studying. Culture has become his obsession. He read a lot, got informed. She inspired me to be an independent woman.
VDC-I am particularly interested in codes and how they evolve. When I got into the world of fine jewelry, I noticed that some pieces age women terribly. They were conformist, boring. I wanted to make it my mission to make women look younger through sensual and fun jewelry. I started by working on volumes, for example creating large, fun rings. Then I thought of ways to make jewelry unique, like personality. Jewelry tells a woman.
And you, Maria Grazia Chiuri, what do you want to change in women’s fashion?
CGM Since I arrived at Dior, my desire has been to create a wardrobe where a woman can freely choose pieces to create her own look. Every woman has an individual style that she should discover. It’s not an easy quest, but it becomes impossible if fashion imposes a binary vision on it. Fashion has made many mistakes in the past. when we didn’t have the overall look of the season, we had was. It is a harsh and one-sided vision, because a woman changes according to her life, her moods. He should be able to give himself freedom to play with his style, to improvise, to make mistakes. Fashion should be a partner and not a constraint.
VDC- I love how you represent women as a whole. Maria Grazia shocked the world of fashion. She weaves bridges between creativity and feminist ideas. She has paved the way by giving exceptional women a voice on important topics, and her fashion shows are the voice of militant feminism. I also had to deal with a predominantly male world when I got into jewelry.
Maria Grazia, why is it so important for you to associate your feminist journey with the Christian Dior name?
CGM Precisely because Dior is a very feminine fashion brand, we have to talk about feminism. We don’t realize it, but the creative environment is very difficult for us. I started as a prop designer and I was the only woman. Even in fashion, genius is male, with a few exceptions. When I arrived at Dior, no one mentioned my CV, only that I am a woman. Inequality depends not only on men, but also on women. Women of my generation, myself the first, are afraid to assert their worth, it seems so bad.
VDC- Of course, this is a measure of self-restraint. We condition ourselves. But I think it’s representative of our generation because I see strong, courageous young women…
CGM However, the achievements and rights that we take for granted do not seem to me to be very common in the world. I see that opposite forces are against each other. on the one hand, we are moving towards the values of freedom, respect and humanity. On the other hand, I see a return to the past, to extremes, which frightens me. Like democracy, women’s rights are far from won.
VDC- We need more female solidarity. If women were united from the beginning of life, it would already be a huge force in the world. Sympathy and dialogue between men and women is also very important. Then there is a fundamental component, which is education. I am a mother of three boys, I taught them to understand and respect women.
You have many responsibilities and you are a mother. Do you feel like you’re living a double life?
VDC- It is interesting for me to fulfill these two roles: mother and creator. Sometimes it is also tiring, even exhausting. When you are engaged in a creative profession, it never leaves you. I don’t count the hours, and thoughts often come at night. My children have always accepted the fact of seeing me in a slightly different place.
CGM Unlike you, when my two children were small, I was constantly haunted by guilt. I was always late and it was pointed out to me every time. I never made a distinction between my role as a creator and my role as a mother. I never knew a day that ended at 6pm where I would turn into an Italian mom preparing fettuccine. We think about children when we are at work and about work when we are with children. And we rarely manage to keep time for just being women.
Source: Le Figaro
