Dior heads to Mumbai for Fall 2023 RTW Show

High-end fashion house Dior presented the Fall 2023 Ready To Wear Womenswear Collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri at the majestic and grand Gateway of India in Mumbai, which is a ceremonial arch-monument built in the early 20th century in the style of 16th-century Gujarati architecture, and is the most popular tourist attraction in the city. Through this collection, Marie Grazia Chiuri explains her link with India and Karishma Swali, who directs the Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft, in Mumbai, a Byculla-based nonprofit founded by Monica Shah and Karishma Swali in 2016, where more than 700 women have enrolled in an embroidery curriculum encompassing more than 100 types of stitching. It forms part of the embroidery house Chanakya Atelier, which Chiuri first began working with two decades ago.

The archives reveal Dior models created by Marc Bohan, the then Artistic Director, who traveled to India in April 1962, notably to Mumbai and Delhi, initiating conversation between France and India. For Marc Bohan, these presentations were significant events, heralding a new departure under his artistic direction: younger customers, and a more dynamic, contemporary approach to fashion and ready-to-wear. Maria Grazia Chiuri has chosen color palettes and materials that crystalize key influences shared with Karishma Swali of Chanakya. The Creative Director of Dior women’s collections works on timeless clothing forms that have stayed intact through time, allowing her to (re)design her favorite models. A color block sequence dedicated to silks – in shades of green, yellow, pink and purple –, in homage to Marc Bohan, is embodied by sophisticated evening coats, sari-inspired straight skirts and traditional Indian cuts, as well as pants, boleros, jackets and tops: a veritable sartorial genealogy defined by different heritages and fashion cultures. DIOR

The collection was presented as sartorial cartography, mapping and tracing the artistic traditions and visual landscapes of India. It showed off relaxed day- and eveningwear looks, which were also worn on the front row by Dior’s Indian A-listers, and included Nehru collar shirting and bar jackets, sari-inspired asymmetric gowns and lean tabards, opulent evening jackets in jewel-tone silks woven by sari artisans in Tamil Nadu and pencil skirts swathed in dense sequins, beading and Zardozi, embroidery in metallic thread. The embroidery offers endless possibilities of this craft and becomes a stool for appraising, through the relationship between Dior and the Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft.

Geometric shapes framed in gold and silver sequins and strass, and bewitching decorative motifs are prominent through kaleidoscope of colors on silk pajamas, blouses and dresses. The revisited toile de Jouy makes its mark with a color palette of green, much like a camouflage of magnified Indian landscapes. The collection, presented in Mumbai, is a celebration of the collaboration between Dior and Chanakya, and also pays ode to the unfailing bond between France and India.