PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 28: Models walk the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

The traffic in Paris, France today was making us nervous of Dior’s 2:30pm scheduled show starting time, but as we approached the Tuileries Garden—one of the city’s most famous and most beautiful green spaces—it was clear there was no need to panic. The scene outside the venue’s huge, white popup marquee was chaos: hundreds upon hundreds of people were crowded outside piling around the entrance, desperate to get a glimpse of the many celebrities sure to be walking into the venue at any moment.

As we slowly filtered through the masses, alongside others with a golden ticket, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Palermo and Chiara Ferragni arrived sending iPhones soaring into the air. But no one made the Gen Z fans scream louder than French YouTuber Lena Situations or K-pop star Jisoo. Iris Law, Jenna Coleman, Alexa Chung, Elizabeth Debicki and Zoey Deutch were also in attendance, while my personal fangirl moment came courtesy of Call my Agent’s Camille Cottin. 

PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 28: Rosamund Pike attends the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

Once inside, guests were seated in podiums with a colourful circular stage resembling a board game in the middle, designed by iconic Italian artist Anna Paparatti and featuring different numbered levels throughout. The walls were dressed up, too, with signs in both English and French dotted around the inner marquee walls with slogans such as “The game of nonsense,” making the space bright, colourful and reminiscent of the city’s newly reopened Disneyland. 

In the show notes, Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri explained she was inspired by Paparatti’s works that explore the concept of play as a space for questioning reality and opening the doors to the imagination. Paparatti also made sense to collaborate with for this collection, for which Chiuri revisited the ‘60s, a time when the artist’s work was at its height in Rome. When the lights dimmed, electro-pop musicians II Quadro di Troisi took their places and began performing, before models streamed out all at once to stand in their numbered positions.

PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 28:  A general view as models walk the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images)

Like the set surrounding it, the collection was bright, bold and refreshing, made up of graphic effects, such as blue leather jackets and hot pink maxi skirts featuring 3D embroidery, and silky boxing uniforms in emerald green, electric blue and fire-engine red. Chiuri was paying tribute to Marc Bohan’s 30-year tenure as creative director of the house from 1958-1989, specifically his 1961 collection, Slim Look, which was said to have completely changed the face of fashion at the time.

As models slowly made their way around the board, before eventually doing a final lap around the outer circuit, silhouettes made for a post-pandemic dancefloor were front and centre, created to evoke the legendary Roman nightclub, the Piper Club. Elsewhere bursts of colour peaked out on the collars of black patent jackets and knee-high boots, while more restrained formal dresses had nude-coloured mesh added to them. Even the mary janes featured on models’ feet came in yellow, blue and green.

It looks like Chiuri is ready for fashion—and the world around it—to be fun again. And we couldn’t agree more. 

A model presents a creation for Dior Womenswear Spring Summer 2022 collection in Paris on September 28, 2021 during the Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)
A model walks the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
A model walks the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
A model walks the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
A model walks the runway during the Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
A model walks the runway during the Dior fashion show during Paris Women’s Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2022 on September 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Estrop/Getty Images).