Paris Fashion Week: It’s disco a-go-go at Dior’s 1960s gameshow

You will likely have heard of the Dior New Look, the revolutionarily opulent cinched waist, full-skirted silhouette created by brand founder Christian Dior in 1947 in the wake of wartime restrictions… but have you heard of the Dior Slim Look?

The Slim Look was (you guessed it) a slender silhouetted, feminine shouldered dress with a hem that fell just below the knee pioneered by Marc Bohan, creative director of the French house from 1961 to 1989.

And it is Bohan’s much lauded tenure at the brand, and particularly his first decade, that Maria Grazia Chiuri looked to for inspiration for the Dior SS22 collection, debuted at a spectacular board game-themed runway show in the Jardin de Tuilieries in Paris on Tuesday.

Models, like life-size pawns, navigated a fortune wheel-esque structure designed by French artist Anna Paparatti in a cleverly choreographed sequence set to electro music from Il Quadro di Troisi – a Dior disco of sorts.

And the Sixties influence was felt throughout via boxy shift dresses worn with white gogo boots, mini skirt suits modernised in primary-coloured neoprene and double-breasted collared frock coats in popping neons. A shimmering fringed mesh and diamante vest top worn with white shorts and knee-laced gladiator sandals appeared summer dancefloor-destined, while a standout orange organza bow-fronted ball gown was begging for an invite to next year’s galas.

Overall the collection popped and bopped with a fresher and more youthful mood than Maria Grazia Chiuri’s recent collections and, given the circumstances, it couldn’t have felt more apt.