Dior’s Blurring Of Reality For Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2025

WHAT IS THE anatomy of a magic trick? For Dior’s spring/summer 2025 Haute Couture presentation, Maria Grazia Chiuri invites us to discover that it’s a balance of the ordinary blended with a surprise. In her latest runway presentation for the Maison, the ‘ordinary’ serves as an essential element, drawn from the quiet confines of a heritage atelier in which the show was staged, which is transformed into a dreamscape through Mumbai-born artist Rithika Merchant’s mythologically rich artworks that cover the walls. Then comes the surprise — the moment your chosen card vanishes from the deck; or the coin disappears, only to rematerialise behind your ear. For Chiuri, the surprise she conjures is that time, much like the card or the coin, seems to dissolve within that room.

Dior’s artful past is reawakened in the present. The Trapèze line — originally designed by Yves Saint Laurent‘s for his debut collection for Dior in 1958 — is reimagined, as is the Cigale silhouette using its original moiré fabric. The result is fantastical. Bodies flicker in and out of sumptuous tiered skirts, vanishing halves emerge from exaggerated blazers and semi-transparent overcoats. But the best thing about Chiuri’s magic trick is that there is no resolution. Chiuri’s world, inspired by the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll, flourishes when opposites collide.

Chiuri’s fascination with “unpredictable metamorphoses” unfolds through her exploration of contrasts, both symbolic and technical. Cage-like crinoline skirts are engulfed by floral embroidery, resembling wisteria, counterbalancing entrapment with the promise of growth. On a structural level, Yves Saint Laurent’s silhouettes defining his ‘New Look’ are reimagined: short skirts paired with fitted tailcoats, overwhelming iridescent pleating offset by dainty bows that seem ready to disappear into the folds, and luxe turquoise furs juxtaposed with austere stockings and flats. These elements heighten the contrast of scale in Chiuri’s world, where proportionality is an unmoored constant — a nod to the effects of consuming Wonderland’s mystical treats.

In addition, Chiuri creates hybrids in place of binaries to explore “the idea of transformation inherent in creation”. Lace-trimmed culottes re-contextualise elements of girlhood into mature silhouettes, creating what Chiuri dubs the ‘girl-woman’ in the show notes. ‘Bird-women’ strode down the runway too, garbed in organza feathers and mohawk headpieces mimicking crests, accentuated by combed-up brows borrowed from House’s styling in their 2025 Resort presentation in Scotland. ‘Flower-women’ appear as well, in capes of raffia petals, botanical leitmotifs and hand-beaded embroidery. 

A gritty undertone serrates the collection’s otherwise prim edges. The show opens with a procession of all-black ensembles, where tailored coats and sheer bishop-sleeved blouses project a “sober yet superb” rigidity. Ever the romantic, Chiuri embraces the complexities inherent to any travel through time. The hallmarks of ’70s punk she conjures — mohawks, excessively laced-up boots, burnished silver accessories — are softened by her poetic vision for couture. On the runway, Chiuri’s creatures spurn anarchy for daydreams. 

Watch the full show below.