Maria Grazia Chiuri presents the Christian Dior Fall 2019 Haute Couture collection in Dior’s Hôtel Particulier, the House’s birthplace, where every Dior Artistic Director has worked in close collaboration with the Ateliers.

Among the inspirations for this collection are the powerful black-and-white works of Penny Slinger – the feminist artist who created the show’s scenography that recounts the potent alchemy of fire, air and water, in the heart of a hostile and mysterious nature populated by feminine creatures. They have always shouldered the weight of the world, like a contemporary iteration of caryatids, the sculptures embodying female forms that support the architecture of ancient temples and decorate certain Parisian edifices, draped in tunics with pure lines. Much like the one white dress Maria Grazia Chiuri designed for a collection that explores the pluralistic power of black.

Designing a collection almost entirely in black, punctuated by rare colors that reveal its power, implies a return to fundamentals, to the foundations of haute couture, and confronting it against contemporary lifestyles. Black demands perfection, and here it gives life to transformable capes. Each dress is an edifice that reveals its construction, the bone structure that supports and defines it. By the same token, this collection etches out an unprecedented landscape, making it possible to question notions about the body, clothing and habitats: haute couture becomes a creative laboratory for thinking differently about clothing and its relationship to time and space.

Peter Philips, Creative and Image Director for Dior make-up, created the make-up for the Christian Dior Fall 2019 Haute Couture collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri, with a look that emphasized the eyes, to match the elegant, dark-hued silhouettes that displayed work on volume.

“I emphasized the eyes by making them softly smoky, but still really quite intense. It’s a look of modern purity, subtly worked with simplicity, where a translucent complexion also plays an important role.”

From the petites mains to the models in the show, we asked them this question, inspired by Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s exploration of the link between the body and architecture, clothing and habitat, in the just-presented Dior Haute Couture Collection.