For all their diktats, turns out the fashion crowd aren’t huge fans of a dress code. At least that was the learning from the Dior Cruise show staged in Rome last night, where creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri had asked women to wear all white and men all black.
Panicked WhatsApp threads questioned whether white jeans would work with a tuxedo jacket (answer yes, judging by the front row) or if a failsafe white shirt dress would be too casual in front of the Dior cameras (a resounding no). Guests Rosamund Pike and Ashley Park didn’t have such issues; they’d raided the Dior archives for suitable white attire. Pike’s lace dress was from the 2024 Mexico Cruise show; Park wore an oatmeal crystal sheath dress from last season. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman had gone one better: debuting one of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Cruise 2026 looks before it had even appeared on the catwalk. Her romantic ruffled dress and tailored frock coat were one of a multitude of white looks in a collection inspired by a Parisian Bal Blanc, hosted in 1930 by Mimi Pecci Blunt, famed aristocrat and patron of the arts.
A Dior customer, Blunt moved in the same circles as Christian Dior, but her connection to Chiuri is even more personal. Five years ago, Chiuri bought Blunt’s old theatre just down the road from her own apartment in Rome and has finally completed its restoration.
Earlier in the day, she’d invited the 450 Dior guests for a tour of the theatre – as well as some of the other places she’s long admired in the city she was born in but hasn’t spent as much time as she would have liked over her almost decade at Dior. One was the Tirelli Costumi – the renowned costume house and workshop where Oscar-winning costumes from Amadeus and Marie Antoinette were made. The Cruise show, Chiuri said, gave her the opportunity to collaborate with the Tirelli atelier to create costumes worn by the dancers who greeted guests and opened the show in the Renaissance gardens of one of Rome’s private villas.
‘I’ve wanted to collaborate with them for a long time. It’s exciting to see the clothes performing in a different way on stage,’ Chiuri said backstage. ‘Most of the time we work with a model’s body, but it’s completely different when you have to work with actors who are performing. I think it’s very important to learn something, for the studio and for me. Otherwise the risk is that you close your world.’
It was also an opportunity for Chiuri to show off her own beloved Rome. ‘Most of the time when you think about Rome you think about the antiquity, the history,’ she said. ‘But so much of the image of the city comes from film. We wanted to celebrate this influence of cinema and theatre.’
Still, in light of persistent rumours that this show was to be Chiuri’s last for Dior, it was impossible not to see this as a homecoming of sorts.
Especially given that Chiuri included not just the ready-to-wear Cruise collection on the catwalk, but also 31 couture looks that would ordinarily have been shown in July in Paris. Backstage, she said this was all part of a narrative about the ‘beautiful confusion’ of a city built on layers and layers of history, much of which is still being excavated and restored today. ‘We wanted to mix the pret-a-porter, couture and costumes so you don’t always understand which is which,’ she said. ‘It’s about creating an illusion; and fashion is sometimes an illusion.’
Confusion aside, if this was a farewell, it was done in style. Smoke rising from the hedges, this had all the hallmarks of a classic Chiuri show. Even the rain that started falling just as the models emerged has become a Chiuri Cruise show tradition. There were scores of fluid, floor-length dresses, that looked easy to wear despite the ornate embroidery and delicate lace. Most were in white; good news for anyone lucky enough to be in the market for a Dior bridal gown. But the metallic and black velvet gowns will also be on the 1% Christmas party dress wish list.
Unusually for a designer whose cult bags will surely remain bestsellers long after she leaves Dior – The Book Tote, The Toujours - there were remarkably few to be seen on the catwalk. That said, there were still plenty of commercial pieces that Chiuri devotees will be pre-ordering: a double-breasted military inspired cashmere coat with black trim for example and countless iterations of precision tailoring – from tailcoats to sleeveless vests - plus of course the iconic bar jacket. Note too, mesh ballerina shoes aren’t going anywhere fast. Or, if you are looking for an upgrade, the flats dripping in crystals looked like the perfect party shoes.
As the crowd rose to give Chiuri a standing ovation as she made her way around the catwalk, the rain cleared. In jeans, a black shirt and velvet jacket, she delivered a final poignant message to her monochrome crowd. Sometimes dress codes are made for defying.
Hattie Brett's first job in journalism was editorial assistant of Grazia – and in 2018, she returned to the brand as editor-in-chief. That means she oversees all the editorial content across print, digital and social. She loves campaigning on issues that really matter to her audience, for example calling on the government to hold an inquiry into the cost and accessibility of childcare. Her work commissioning, editing and creating content for Grazia's woman across everything from fashion to interiors and politics, won her BSME Editor of the Year in 2022. Prior to her current role, she has worked in women's media for almost 20 years, launching and editing a website for millennial women The Debrief before working as deputy lifestyle director at The Telegraph across fashion, beauty and luxury.