For Maria Grazia Chiuri, each collection is an occasion for establishing a link between a creative project, savoir-faire, and innovation. An opportunity to build a fecund environment, like an immense atelier where research into materials, techniques and production methods plays a major role. For the Dior Cruise 2022 collection -- which will be shown in the heart of the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens -- Maria Grazia Chiuri weaves an open dialogue with local ateliers and craftsmen, to discover and promote traditions that are intimately tied to places and families. She initiates exchanges with an emphasis on the processes of collective creation, at the junction of memory and cultural values to be handed down to younger generations.
At the Parthenon in Athens, the dresses Angleterre worn by Angelina, Pérou worn by Catherine, États-Unis worn by France, Grèce worn by Alla, France worn by Marie-Thérèse, Mexiqueworn by Renée, Australie worn by Lucky and Brésilworn by Jeanne, from Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 1951, Longue line, by Christian Dior. Photo © Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini / Paris-Match / La Scoop
The chosen venue for the show is the Panathenaic Stadium, also known as Kallimármaro, where in ancient times games in honour of the goddess Athena were held. It once accommodated up to 70,000 spectators and is today the stadium for all Athenians -- an essential, unifying feature of cultural life in the Greek capital. Built entirely of Pentelic marble, the stadium was buried for centuries; it was restored in the second half of the 19th century.
The choice of this location, creating a prodigious bridge between sport and culture, the heritage of Antiquity and contemporary youth, is highly symbolic for Maria Grazia Chiuri, not only through its connections to the body and freedom of movement she cherishes, but also through the motifs that inform the collection and its sportswear spirit.
This iconic monument of grandiose volumes is fully respected and protected in its original beauty, as the House of Dior worked hand in hand with Greek archaeologists to ensure the site's complete and unconditional preservation for the duration of the event.
Aristeidis Tzonevrakis is a tailor and embroiderer. A visit to his atelier near Argos in the Peloponnese region in southern Greece was decisive for Maria Grazia Chiuri, who commissioned him to embroider a jacket and a Dior Book Tote, with his unique method of structuring and embellishing dresses and accessories.
Silk Line is a factory based in Soufli, a town renowned for its centuries-old silk industry, located in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region. It perpetuates the traditional Greek silk weaving technique using a jacquard loom. Dior invited Silk Line to weave the House's iconic motifs, such as stripes and houndstooth, using this ancestral savoir-faire.
Founded in 1936 in the Port of Piraeus in Athens, Atelier Tsalavoutas produces the iconic fisherman's cap that is anchored in the collective memory. This family family-run manufacturer -- whose caps have been worn by fishermen on the island of Hydra since the mid-19th century -- combines ancestral craft techniques with technological innovation to perpetuate the production of this historic accessory. It is the only company to hold, for this piece, the "Hellenic Handcrafted Authenticity" label. Maria Grazia Chiuri wished to reinterpret this cap for the Dior cruise 2022 show by crowning it with a braid made by NE.M.A., an atelier that is dedicated to transmitting traditional passementerie techniques.
This photograph, captured in the heart of Athens archaeological site, pays tribute to the photographs of Monsieur Dior's haute couture line, taken in 1951 by French magazine Paris Match next to the Parthenon. photo © Ria Mort
