Dior stages a powerful Cruise show inspired by Mary Stuart at Versailles in Scotland

Mary, Queen of Scots, has always been a source of inspiration for the French, although never more than this Monday at the last Dior cruise collection show, held in Scotland.

Named Mary Stuart, daughter of King James V of Scotland and his French wife, Mary of Guise, her tragic story and her fierce resistance to her cruel destiny gave rise to one of the best collections by the Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Dior house.

The parade opened with a bagpiper playing plaintively, dressed in a dark red suit like the one Mary wore on the day of her execution, a Catholic symbol of martyrdom. First, warrior princesses paraded dressed in midnight blue, deep purple and forest green wool plaid fabrics cut into gorgeous low-cut cocktail dresses, zippered boleros and ruffles. Skirts and windbreakers. The outfits gave way to a medieval air with tartan cuirasses and sequined tops that simulated armor. Almost all the models wore multi-strap work boots, unbuttoned and with dark diamond knee socks, Chiuri’s latest look that will give rise to a global trend.

In the front row, faces like Rosamund Pike, Lily Collins and Jennifer Lawrence admired the parades.

This Cruise show was also the latest great example of Chiuri’s restless ability to connect with rare local designers, artisans and textile resources.

Chiuri flew to the Outer Hebrides to study Harris Tweed weavers, and incorporated their tweeds into multiple looks. She moved to the northeast coast of Scotland to work with the Johnstons of Elgin weavers, and
teamed up with local designer and influencer Samantha McCoach of Le Kilt to create practical kilts with pockets.

“We were able to work with a great group of local suppliers, it was a beautiful experience that also gave rise to a very innovative palette for Dior,” declared Chiuri, who was wearing an elongated pleated kilt with multiple pockets finished as a carpenter’s harness, perfect for Put away your cell phone, cigarettes or scissors.

The show once again united Dior with Scotland. In April 1955, Christian Dior presented a spring/summer collection at a charity ball at Gleneagles, the legendary Scottish manor hotel, and a catwalk show at Glasgow’s Central Hotel. Photos from these events (catwalk models dressed in tulle, Monsieur Dior in a white tie looking in delight at his creations, or even walk-in visitors standing outside) are Photoshopped into punky bibs, Dior totes, and coats. And even on collector’s blankets that were distributed among the guests when the temperature began to drop before the parade.

Chiuri, fashion’s top feminist designer, also referenced “Embroidering her Truth,” Clare Hunter’s cultural biography of Mary Stuart, which shows how Mary used sumptuous fabrics as the future wife of the French dauphin, or Later, in captivity, he embroidered coded messages for his supporters.

“Clare Hunter’s book is fascinating because of how she explains Maria’s experience in prison with her ladies-in-waiting. How she uses her “domestic” tasks of sewing and embroidery to express her own positions. She is a feminist, in the sense of community of work to defend something,” Chiuri insisted, sitting on a raspberry and orange checkered couch in a backstage preview before the show.

Chiuri placed adjectives such as fierce, difficult, grumpy or hysterical on the white or floral corsets the models wore as they twirled through the extraordinarily beautiful symmetrical French Renaissance-style garden of Drummond Castle. The same morning of the show, the national newspaper The Scotsman had already put the show on the front page, writing: “The (Dior) collection, an absolute secret, impenetrable like a vintage corset.”

Playing on the legacy of Mary Stuart, whose life was divided between France and Scotland, Maria Grazia also commissioned artist Pollyanna Johnson to create a modern portrait, inspired by the tradition of illustrated ceramics decorated with portraits from the 16th and 17th centuries. .

Born in 1542, Mary became Queen of Scots just six days old, when her father died suddenly after childbirth. In 1559, at the age of 16, she became queen of France for a year, until her husband, King Francis II, died of a brain abscess. Returning to Scotland, she was soon perceived as a threat to the accession of the Protestant Elizabeth I, who had her imprisoned in 1568, spending 18 years in various prisons before being beheaded.

But Maria’s famous beauty and brains shined at the show, with a beautiful evening selection of regal lace dresses, sometimes paired with modern trench coats, and other times with Finnish fox blousons.

In short, although it referenced one of the most romantic tragic queens in history, Dior’s collection and vision is younger, bolder, fresher and sexier. And it is without a doubt the most powerful Cruise collection of this season.

After eight years at Dior, one wonders what else Maria Grazia wants to say in the house.

“I think I want to do whatever I want,” she laughed, adding: “I’m very lucky, because I can do what I want, which is work with craftsmen and artists that I want to collaborate with. Employ craftsmen that I respect and help maintain schools for artisans. This is a fundamental reason why I am very happy at Dior.”