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Christian Dior: The Age of the Amazons

Focus

By Laurence Benaïm.

Dior played a key role in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Riding this sporting wave, Maria Grazia Chiuri invited SAGG Napoli, a Neapolitan artist whose performance as an archer opened the Summer 2025 show at the Rodin Museum. 

The silhouettes were tightened and stretched in an opulent celebration of the ‘60s and women riders. And of course, there were allusions to Grazia Chiuri’s first collection as Dior Artistic Director (September 2016), which featured fencing. 

 

Eight years later, a motto appeared in calligraphy: “May the building of a strong mind and a strong body be the greatest work I have ever made.” Right from the start, asymmetrical swimming costumes and spartan sandal-boots set the tone for a hybrid and valiant season, as urban as graphic, and playing two major cards, white and black, the leitmotif to an Amazon season. With asymmetrical white shirts and tailored jackets, a gust of wind blew through the look of 30 Montaigne in a sportswear spirit that featured bowling bags, smock jackets and jackets whose tabs reinforced the “technical” effect. The Dior logo took centre stage, with giant white letters stretching across black jackets, skirts and trousers with black stripes. 

As a counterpoint, the final passages exalted the antique ideal, with nude chiffon dresses delicately draped over the bodies of these Diana huntresses of the upper class, while a kilt of glittering fringes electrifies the Années Folles attitude. An haute ode to freedom.