This season, Maria Grazia Chiuri trained the spotlight on Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko, whose work, combining photography and embroidery, provided the backdrop for her Christian Dior’ Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2022 show.
Maria Grazia Chiuri discovered the work of Olesia Trofymenko at Maxxi, the contemporary art museum in Rome, and she was strongly impressed by Trofymenko’s craftsmanship and use of folk motifs. And at Chiuri’s invitation, the Ukrainian artist proposed to use an element of Ukrainian folklore, the tree of life, as the emblematic theme and theme of the collection.
The tree of life, a symbol of rebirth that is particularly relevant as the artist’s country remains at war with Russia.
Chiuri channeled the tree of life, the leitmotif in Trofymenko’s art, by evoking roots and branches in long, loose-fitting folk dresses – or in stiff, short ethnic jackets embroidered with silk and cotton threads and yarns.
In an almost poetic touch, Chiuri had also reinvented Dior‘s flowers and also somehow linked them to the folk costume embroideries that became the basis of the collection.
©Dior
