Fashion week celebrates not only fashion and beauty, but also brilliant art that has left an indelible mark.Designers showcase outfits that bear traces of the past, and the surreal sheen it adds to the already glamorous Fashion Week is incomparable. Fashion enthusiasts in Paris witnessed something similar on Monday when Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri waved her wand and created magic on the runway with her Josephine Baker-inspired haute couture show. The brilliant lineup, complete with golden jacquards, crushed velvet, and beaded fringes, left the audience spellbound.
Who is Josephine Baker?
Chiuri only had great things to say about Josephine Baker, the French-American jazz singer, and dancer who apparently left a strong enough mark to inspire a designer to create something that bewitched the viewers.
Josephine Baker has an important place in Dior history. After all, it is not a small thing to become the muse of the legendary Christian Dior. Baker spent quite lavishly on fashion and was easily one of Dior’s best customers. While in Paris, Baker invested a fortune in grand, embellished gowns and elegant suits that spoke of the gifted hands of the tailor, where the thread flowed like music. Well, spending a massive sum of $250,000 on an haute couture wardrobe seems like the behaviour of someone who is truly besotted with fashion, and nobody can appreciate Dior more.
Perhaps, this is why Dior managed to capture the perfect moment by celebrating Josephine Baker at its spring/summer show 2023. Through the show, it also managed to subvert the highly fetishized image of Baker, an infamous Folies Bergere costume. Fashion becomes iconic when it cuts through the fabric of conventions and makes a space for itself. Dior has proved it once again.
“She immediately understood the power of fashion,” Chiuri said of Baker, and with her dazzling lineup, Chiuri immortalised the icon yet again. The show is also a reminder that fashion is so much more than a couple of well-fitting clothes and perfect outfits. Enmeshed within it is a throbbing history that still has the power to send tremors through the present. Dior underscored this fact with its spring show at Paris Fashion Week, and we are all in awe. It created a surreal and aesthetic vibe with the glitter of the sequins and the fur stoles hugging shoulders.It’s safe to say that Marie Grazia Chiuri managed to recreate the vintage jazz club vibe with her show, which will go down in fashion history as one of the most memorable ones. Perhaps the glittery sequins will add an extra gloss to the page.
The Designer Brilliance
One cannot overlook the crucial role played by a designer in adding the colours of success to a show. Josephine Baker is an icon, but it is Chiuri’s gifted hands that have given Baker’s style a timeless iconic glow.What sets Chiuri’s work apart from the rest is her brilliant attention to detail. She was able to look at a particular theme not just from the angle of fashion and style, but also from that of history and culture. The core focus of Chiuri’s work was to restore the rightful place of Baker in history. The designer delved into the details of Baker’s life, revealing her affinity for suits, which is reflected with finesse in the dazzling lineup. Chiuri also paid homage to history by drawing inspiration from the uniforms Baker wore when she was a member of the resistance during the Second World War. With her designs, Chiuri underscores the fact that fashion tells stories to those willing to listen.
While the show was a splendid feast of fashion for the audience, it also underlined matters of immense depth, the relevance of which cannot be overlooked. Time adds a priceless snippet to stories that are best expressed through art, which creates a space where a spectrum of narratives can coexist. It is safe to say that Marie Grazia Chiuri was successful in creating such a space, proving herself to be a brilliant designer and storyteller.
