The first looks to emerge on the catwalk set the tone. Dressed in bodysuits with graphic cut-outs, enlaced by cross-body bags slung over the shoulder like quivers, models instantly personified the Amazon whose impetuosity and aplomb guided the show. Initiating a new dialogue between couture and technicality, the Creative Director distilled, through her creations, a revisited lexicon of sport. Tops, at times fully embroidered with multifaceted beads; suits and ensembles drawn from the world of race-car driving; boxing shorts and shoes; and jackets and bombers embellished with harness straps and carabiners played on the tension between ease, sophistication and functionality.

Like an echo of the House’s archives, the idea of movement shined through – starting with the Amazone dress designed by Christian Dior for autumn-winter 1951-1952, whose asymmetrical neckline here unfurled on bodysuits, oversized shirts and knitted dresses of vestal inspiration, invoking various representations of women throughout history. In tribute to the founding couturier’s passion for the art of construction, some silhouettes borrowed from men’s suiting, now reconsidered thanks to a virtuoso exercise in volume and draping.

Extending the reflection on the female form and women’s agility – of action and spirit – garments also borrowed from the sportswear glossary its characteristic visual culture. Punctuating the pieces was a “Dior” logo newly transformed into an original graphic iteration. Stretched to the extreme, the letters became horizontal lines, like hypnotic stripes that dared to accentuate contrast and convey the ultra-modern momentum that permeates this collection.

That impulsion was further amplified by the show’s enchanting set, at the heart of which the artist and archer SAGG Napoli gave an archery demonstration, embodying with bullseye precision the contemporary Amazon: rebellious, indomitable, irreducible, all-conquering.