Ancient Greece Dominates Dior’s Fashion Show in Paris

Ancient Greece and its goddesses formed the backdrop on Monday for the latest Dior fashion show by designer Maria Grazia Chiuri held in Paris.

The designs of the opening day of haute couture week at the French capital’s Musée Rodin were inspired by power, feminism and the divine.

Contemporary and classical.
As the debut look on the #DiorCouture Autumn-Winter 2023-2024 runway, a double-face white cape and dress capture Maria Grazia Chiuri's creative desire to re-see the familiarity of Greco-Roman myths and goddesses through a fresh and modern lens.

— Dior (@Dior) July 3, 2023

The show opened with a long white woolen dress and matching cape, while other designs used pleats to evoke classical-era statues.

The clothes were full of clean, vertical lines and subtle shades of white, black, beige, gold and silver, with flat sandals that added to the atmosphere of antiquity.

“Actually, these clean lines hide remarkable complexity,” Chiuri told AFP.

“It was a work of subtraction. I wanted to remove the sheath, the lining – these elements that characterize constructed couture outfits,” she said.

She quoted the house’s founder, who said his dresses shared an “apparent simplicity” with ancient statues.

Lightening the construction without losing the shape was the biggest challenge, Chiuri said.

Actors Natalie Portman and Rosamund Pike were among VIP attendees captivated by the fusion of these imaginative realms of threads and thoughts, the Associated Press reports.

Dior magnetized by ancient Greece

The French multinational luxury fashion house has drawn inspiration from ancient Greece recently.

In 2021, the island of Milos was the backdrop for a collection inspired by ancient Greece. The video for the collection, which was published on Dior’s YouTube channel, showed off the stunning Greek island in all its beauty.

In June 2021, Dior held an awe-inspiring fashion show at the Panathenaic Stadium, or “Kallimarmaro,” in Athens for the major fashion house’s “Cruise 2022” collection.

Setting the show at the world-famous, historically significant, and (most importantly) decidedly Greek, Kallimarmaro Stadium was clearly a nod to ancient Greece, which acts as a huge inspiration for Dior.

And that wasn’t the first time that Dior had sought to hold a fashion show in Greece. The show which was held at Kallimarmaro actually was the third such show, after a Dior show held in Athens in 1951 and a second show, in the 1970’s, with the iconic fashion house showcasing its elegant, minimalist dresses at the Acropolis.

Dior isn’t the only figure in the fashion world that continues to seek inspiration from Greece, and the Greek island of Milos, in particular.

The famed French fashion house Louis Vuitton chose the beautiful Greek island of Milos as the setting for its brand campaign in 2021 called “The Spirit of Travel,” which was released in September of that year.