Dior’s Pre-Fall 2023 Collection staged in Mumbai.
In the setting as on the clothes, Dior sprinkled flowers on its Pre-Fall 2023 fashion show, which was staged in the heart of Mumbai, India, amidst oriental music.
Like a Holi, the famous Indian festival celebrating the arrival of spring, brimming with vibrant colors: that’s how Dior walked its Pre-Fall 2023 runway show in the shadow of the Gateway of India, in the heart of Mumbai. “I’m always struck by the fact that on arrival here, they put a necklace of flowers on you and bless you,” Maria Grazia Chiuri is reported to have confessed, who was inspired by those same flowers to celebrate the Indian savoir-faire embodied in Dior’s signature garments.
The yellow marigold
Also called the herb of the sun, marigold (also called Indian carnation) is one of the most popular flowers in India and symbolizes creativity, passion, positivity and happiness. With its shades from lime yellow to deep red, this flower is reflected in the clothes designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri in floral prints that are also intoxicating to the eyes.
Dior Pre-Fall 2023 INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Getty Images
From the hibiscus, the fuchsia
According to Hindu mythology, the hibiscus is closely linked to the goddess Kali, bearer of the force of life. Native to Indian lands, this flower is strongly linked to femininity, and is carried in Dior’s Pre-Fall 2023 collection in no less than 14 total-looks. Fabrics alternate between extremely smooth and richly decorated, with no middle ground, emphasizing embroidery through sequins from the Chanakya school.
Dior Pre-Fall 2023 Rubina A. Khan/Getty Images
The flower clitoria ternatea gives blue.
In prints of the color blue, other worlds emerge to tell, where animals such as the peacock, the national bird of India and a symbol of pageantry and royalty, are prominent. In the flowers of Indian culture, the color blue is from a particular plant named clitoria ternatea (or butterfly pea flower), which is used primarily in Ayurvedic medicine.
Dior Pre-Fall 2023 INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Getty Images
Pansy
The pansy, a flower found in many latitudes of the Earth, is also very common in India, so its color also contaminates the inspirations that Maria Grazia Chiuri brought to Pre-Fall 2023. Intense and bold, purple also mixes with white, as in the violets themselves, which often carry multiple colors.
Dior Pre-Fall 2023 Rubina A. Khan/Getty Images
Scent of white jasmine
A symbol of love par excellence, as intoxicating as its scent, jasmine (or Jasmine) is also an emblem of Indian culture around the world. Often used in cooking to scent dishes and drinks, but also worn in the hair and given as a gift to declare oneself. Like love, pure white and candid, so in the Dior garments that closed the fashion show under the Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Dior Pre-Fall 2023 Rubina A. Khan/Getty Images