From Dior’s Tarot-Inspired Robes To A Chanel Garden Party, SS21 Couture Makes A Case For Wearing Your Best Clothes Now

If there was one takeaway from the month’s couture shows, it’s that even when faced with tidal waves of change, fashion rolls on.

‘Are fashion shows any longer necessary?’ an International Herald Tribune article published way back in October 2001 asked. Weeks before, the September 11th attacks had completely upturned the world and status quo. Editors couldn’t travel. Some fashion houses staged special screenings of ‘virtual’ shows. Others sent special packages with lookbooks. There was a lot of talk about technology and how it could forever change the way people look at, think about, and interact with clothes. And yet time revealed that the screen couldn’t compete with the experience of seeing a dress up close, of touching its silk, running one’s hands through the pleats. Sound familiar?

How to make sense of this moment in time right now? Three lockdowns in. And four virtual women’s seasons — that’s autumn/winter ’20 couture, spring/summer ’21 ready to wear, autumn/winter ’21 pre-fall and now spring/summer ’21 couture. An entire year with Covid.

Maria Grazia Chiuri has never shied away from the news cycle or zeitgeist. And for her latest virtual couture show, in the form of a 15-minute film directed by Matteo Garrone, she explored existential questions in a Dior collection dedicated to tarot, with 45 gilded, regal looks crafted in tribute to a range of mystical characters.

Tarot readings have risen in popularity among millennials and members of Gen Z looking to find clarity in these pandemic times. And Chiuri has been known to sprinkle astrological motifs throughout her work. So, in a way the collection felt like a natural progression. ‘Christian Dior was very interested in tarot,’ she explained of her introduction to the practice during a Zoom call after the show. ‘And in this moment, I think we are very lost in our personal life.’ Chiuri said she wanted to explore the idea of tarot as a ‘fairytale’ going big on the fantastical and romantic with medieval empire waist dresses.

There’s a very real sense of optimism as an antidote to the year’s bleak start spreading in fashion right now — a kind of, things can only go up from here, so we might as well dress all the way up kind of mood. At Chanel, Virginie Viard was thinking about a life beyond lockdown in a joyful show put on for a very small audience at the Grand Palais and streamed to the rest of the world. In front of a starry, socially-distanced front row, including Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Lily-Rose Depp and Vanessa Paradis, the runway was filled with vibrant, candy box-bright florals and similarly-hued frilled party dresses and tweed suits.

Only rather than escaping to a magical realm, as at Dior, the Chanel woman is off to a family gathering — arguably one of the aspects of our old life we miss most. Who doesn’t long for the day when we can have a real occasion to dress for, one filled with the people you love (physically all in one place!) and permission to touch them.

Viard wanted to explore the idea of freedom, dance and summer parties. ‘I knew we couldn't organise a big show, that we would have to invent something else, so I came up with the idea of a small cortege that would come down the stairs of the Grand Palais and pass beneath arches of flowers. Like a family celebration, a wedding…’ she explained in a statement afterwards. ‘I love big family reunions, when the generations all come together. It's so warm. There’s this spirit at Chanel today. Because Chanel is also like a family.’

What was perhaps most striking about this show was its unapologetic sense of hope and cheeriness from the flower crowns on the models’ heads to the layers of pink lace on a bolero jacket. In the Chanel woman’s world, the question isn’t if we’ll ever be able to dress up again, but when. And why even wait to start?

In the hours leading up to the show, various editor and influencer friends of the house who would ordinarily fill the front row took to Instagram to post photos of themselves at home, dressed in Chanel, handbags conveniently perched next to their laptops. The moment made a case for putting the good clothes on now.

Elsewhere, and perhaps most excitingly, on the virtual runways, Kim Jones made his highly awaited couture debut, which was also his first collection in his new role as artistic director of Fendi. It’s hard to create a sense of excitement and buzz around a live-streamed show. And many fashion houses have struggled to reach the same level of engagement for runway presentations that are broadcast on screens as they do with their physical shows replete with all the drama of a heaving audience of glossy, powerful insiders and a front row filled with celebrity VIPSs.

That said, Jones managed to rise to the task with a co-ed cast (men are trending this season!) that spanned A-list actresses (Demi Moore) and supermodels (Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Adwoa Aboah and Bella Hadid), with starry relatives mixed in for an added dose of buzz (Moss’s daughter Lila, Aboah’s sister Kesewa, Turlington's nephew James, and Silvia Fendi’s daughter Delfina Delettrez, to name a few.) Jones wanted the collection, a tight lineup of 19 dresses and suits inspired by Virginia Woolf’s_Orlando_, to speak to the power of family, and in so doing made a statement about resilience. “It is in its third generation with a Fendi at its helm, and I am guest starring while bringing in the fourth,’ he said in a statement. ‘Here, I am surrounded by strong, powerful women who I love and respect, and want to bring their energy into what I do.'

At Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s response to the moment was to strip back the exuberant sense of shape he has become known for, even if the show itself felt grand in scale (74 men’s and women’s looks).

Towering gold platforms notwithstanding, the clothes, which largely revolved around the building blocks of day wear, had a noticeable ease. Giorgio Armani, meanwhile, used his collection of elegant, fluid dresses to communicate a sense of perspective. ‘Couture is rooted in fashion history. It represents the pinnacles of creativity and sartorial skill, but is a world available only to very few,’ he said. ‘Today, through the democracy of the Internet, we are able to offer a front row seat to everyone.’ Roll on.