Maria Grazia Chiuri has worked with a host of female artists for her womenswear catwalk collections for Dior, from Judy Chicago and her 3m-high embroidered feminist banners, to Lucia Marucci's lightbox installation of kaleidoscopic stained glass windows.
For S/S 2022's Paris Fashion Week, Chiuri looked to the 85-year-old Italian artist Anna Paparatti, whose colourful artworks from the 1960s resemble board games, alluding to the absurdities of life. Il Gioco del Nonsense, 1964, features an ovular board ringed with colourful numbers, placed on a geometric and equally kaleidoscopic backdrop.
Dior S/S 2022: a winning show set design inspired by board games
Dior S/S 2022
Chiuri was intrigued by the notion of fashion as a game: its whimsy, performative nature, its competition, something to play and experiment with. So for spring, she enlisted Paparatti to recreate her board game-inspired artworks, which made up Dior's kaleidoscopic and geometric show set at the Jardin des Tuileries. A runway was formed from a circle of flooring panels set at various levels, and a backdrop boasted artworks resembling dart boards and roulette wheels.
Here, Chiuri offered up a vibrant youth quake-inspired offering, nodding to the short silhouettes of 1960s fashion and referencing the 'Slim Look' pioneered by former creative director Marc Bohan. Short skirt suits in orange and yellow flared above the knee, pea coats were emblazoned with bold stripes and patterned mini skirts were paired with skin-baring bandeaux.
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The iconography of he collection and the runway set also nodded to the the Piper Club – which opened in 1965 in Rome, a hub of experimental music and fashion that attracted The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix – with a geometric, multi-levelled stage, and a dance floor lined with colourful chairs and tables.
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