The 1953 Albert Decaris etching that turned up in the Christian Dior archives, a map of the five continents that retraces the House’s expansion around the world and the couturier’s assertion in his autobiography were the inspirations that guided Maria Grazia Chiurito creating the Dior Fall 2017 Haute Couture collection, celebrating the House’s 70th anniversary.

The Artistic Director for womenswear looked to the atlas that  symbolizes for a desire for faraway lands, the need to travel to discover the world and oneself, to feel emotion, grow and evolve. It evokes her own journey from Rome to Paris and her exploration of the Dior heritage. She is drawn to the heroine’s flair for borrowing elements from the masculine wardrobe and mixing them with ethnic pieces. Menswear fabrics are transformed into shimmering surfaces and chiaroscuro on jackets, coats, blouses and jumpsuits that recall aviator jackets and open into pleated culotte skirts. Meanwhile, the masculine fedora by Stephen Jones, the milliner who this year celebrates his 20th anniversary as Dior’s hat designer, is spotlighted commemorating explorers such as Freya Stark.

The collection is a topography of emotions: colors, flowers and embroidered tarot cards themselves become atlases on capes and evening gowns in silk and tulle, in gray powdered with pink or nocturnal shades of velvet. This fairyland recalls the monumental maps and globes of grand interiors: with the power of feminine literary roamings, sprinkled with explorations of culture and style.

The artist Pietro Ruffo, with whom Maria Grazia Chiuri shares a creative bond, designed the décor of the Fall 2017 Haute Couture runway show, which retraces the Earth and the celestial sphere.

Go behind the scenes as we explore the Atelier in which the Fall 2017 Haute Couture collection was created with divine talent and craftsmanship.