A world in
motion

“What would this profession, made up of life and movement, be if it had to be frozen on wooden mannequins?” Christian Dior muses in Talking About Fashion¹. The body in motion is at the heart of the House’s history, representing an irrepressible enthusiasm, an effervescence that inspired the founding couturier to embark on a fantastically inventive adventure. “I was always searching to alter the general attraction of women and enliven their silhouette. The material ought to live on her shoulders, and her figure live beneath the material,” he noted. Toying with the tension between freedom and constraint, he thought up models with full, vaporous skirts and a sublimely slender waist.

Those in his first show – revealed on February 12^th, 1947 – embodied an incredible array of possibilities following wartime restrictions: the Corolle and En Huit lines blossomed in turn, like the return of spring, enhancing curves with infinite precision. They etched out an ethereal, fluid femininity that was as light as a flower, with increasingly ample gestures. Sporty suits with names like Voyage, Elle and Montmartre appeared. Reflecting the progress of the 20^th century, they were cut from resistant fabrics usually reserved for men’s wear. In The Little Dictionary of Fashion, Monsieur Dior emphasized the necessary functionality of sportswear, which “must remain practical and simple to be truly elegant”².

Throughout his collections, he weaved constant connections with the world of sport, with which he shared a desire to push the limits of audacity and dreams. In a play of volume and draping, the Amazone³ dress – unveiled for autumn-winter 1951-1952 – hinted at an ingenious interpretation of tailoring and recalled the men’s suiting already favoured by equestriennes.

The couturier never ceased to exalt the art of recreation, the tireless energy that transforms and sculpts the limbs and stimulates the mind. In September 1956, he signed licensing agreements in the United States and launched swimwear there. In an evolution from sportswear to activewear, some pieces were expressly conceived not just for fashion’s sake but also for physical exercise.

Christian Dior’s successors also cultivated those precious links with sport. Translating the incandescence of a social context in constant flux, the Dior Sport line was born in 1962. It included equipment designed for skiing and allowed the House to adopt a sportswear vocabulary. Seizing on a previously unexplored lexicon, it stimulated a dialogue between sewing and technicality, borrowing from sport its characteristic visual culture. Prolonging such pluralistic influences offering a new perspective on women’s power as expressed through their wardrobe, Maria Grazia Chiuri has celebrated mental discipline and elegance of movement ever since her arrival at Dior, in 2016. For her, “sport is a vector for women’s emancipation”⁴. An ode to empowerment that could already be seen in the Dior spring-summer 2017 ready-to-wear collection, the Creative Director’s inaugural show, marking the first time a woman had held that major role at the House. “I wanted to highlight certain elements of the fencer’s outfit, such as the padding, the plastron and the lacing, so that they would become a series of pieces that are both complete and useful. So that every woman can articulate her sartorial grammar in a very personal way,” Maria Grazia Chiuri observed at the time.

Season after season, she studied the relationship between performance and clothing, and particularly with the Dior Vibe universe, which reinterprets essentials in the sports wardrobe. That unique line was developed as part of the Dior cruise 2022 show, which took place in Athens, Greece, and more specifically at the Panathenaic Stadium – a legendary and mythological place also known as Kallimármaro, where the games in honour of Athena were held and where, in 1896, the first Olympic Games of the modern era were staged.

The choice of that location was highly symbolic, building a prodigious bridge between sport and culture, fashion and the body, ancient heritage and contemporary youth.

Forging New Links Through Exceptional Collaborations in Men’s Wear

Driven by a perpetual quest for innovation, each season Kim Jones reveals collaborations with specialists in various sports disciplines, each carefully chosen for its virtuoso savoir-faire. From backpacks developed for the most extreme situations – made in partnership with Mystery Ranch – to ski suits developed with Descente and surf wear by Vissla. The Artistic Director for men’s collections examines every horizon, including running, which he infuses with futurism in the B35 NXXT sneakers. In 2021, kicking off a long-term partnership with Paris Saint-Germain, Kim Jones conceived a magnetic wardrobe for the French capital’s soccer team. Combining the great outdoors with luxury standards, he also initiated a fascinating exchange with Dior ambassador and guest designer Lewis Hamilton and imagined a Lifestyle Capsule dedicated to board sports. Echoing the intense and exhilarating everyday life of the Seven-Time Formula 1 world champion, this exceptional line promises refined winter style. Like a fabulous common thread, elegance plays a central role in these alliances, each one a perfect symbiosis of classicism and ease, distinction and functionality, performance and excellence.