Silk Room: How Dior is reclaiming the values of haute couture after this period of restrictions

Silk Room: With this absolutely stunning decor Dior has once again taken bold creativity to new heights

At the intersection of art and haute couture, this sublime textile architecture unfurls like an ode to the precious savoir-faire and cultures of the world. The materiality of fabric becomes form, while the subversive language of embroidery is expressed in a project that becomes a performance.

A graphic vision of couture.

Dior presented its Fall/Winter 2021-2022 haute couture show against the backdrop of an exceptionally sublime decor. Dior commissioned artist Eva Jospin to create a monumental installation In the heart of the sculpture garden of the Rodin Museum in Paris.

Based on a unique design by the French artist Eva Jospin, the forty-meter-long immersive gallery – spanning 350 square meters – was entirely hand-embroidered by the virtuoso artisans of the Chanakya workshop and the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai. During stay at the Villa Médicis, in Rome, Eva Jospin visited the Colonna palace and discovered the Embroidery Room entirely covered with embroidered textiles, from floor to ceiling. This singular atmosphere inspired the French artist to create Chambre de Soie.

The backdrop of silk embroidered panels conceived by the French artist were in perfect harmony with the threads theme that inspired Dior Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Entitled Silk Room, this unique work is the fruit of an extensive process with a dialogue of multiple voices. The creation references both the Indian-inspired Embroidery Room at the Palazzo Colonna in Rome and Virginia Woolf’s feminist manifesto A Room of One’s Own.

The work celebrates the notion of collective energy dear to Italian designer and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

The Dior Autumn-Winter 2021-2022 Haute Couture collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri extols the return to physical presentations in its celebration of the materiality of fabric becoming form.

Details and accessories: For the look of the show, Peter Philips, Creative & Image Director of Dior Makeup, created an ‘under-liner’ in a cool, couture midnight blue that is both dense and soft.

Symbolizing excellence, a bibi adorned with a veil reinterprets the emblematic cannage motif in a refined, all-feather version. Tweed hats with visors – resembling revisited riding hats – add an elegant, contemporary spirit. Designed by Dior milliner Stephen Jones, these exceptional pieces dialogue with the looks of Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Enhancing the haute couture silhouettes designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri with a shimmering touch, the collection’s jewels evoke nature at its most bucolic populated by flowers and golden corals. The models’ hands are covered in precious creations, while rings with delicate details adorn the fingertips. Necklaces and earrings further enrich this enchanting and poetic universe.

Bold, contemporary and graphic, the shoes add a free, assertive edge to the looks of the collection. Boots and ankle boots adorned with tweed, an emblematically masculine fabric, echo the unique constructions of certain silhouettes, while ballerinas are entirely swathed in netting. Unique creations fusing comfort and elegance.

The spark

Reexamine your assumptions about the humble art of sewing as author Clare Hunter – whose book ‘Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle’ was the spark for the Autumn-Winter 2021-2022 Haute Couture collection. The new fashion show and book reveal the overlooked history and influence of this most universal of crafts.

Clare Hunter is a community textile artist, curator & author based in Scotland. Threads of Life is published by Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton (UK), Abrams Press (US), Bollati Boringhieri (Italy) & Uitgeverij Balans (Amsterdam).