Dior
Courtesy of Dior

For Dior Autumn/Winter 2021-2022, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri sent a series of intricate, hand-crafted scarves down the runway. The versatility of the single silk square has been loved for decades with the French fashion house paying special attention to the style this season. Bringing a touch of elegance in the form of belts to headbands, bandanas and neck ties, the craft behind the piece needs to be witnessed.

Dior
Credit: Dior / Pol Baril

Like any luxury good, hours of detailing and craftsmanship goes into just one piece and it’s mesmerising, almost calming to watch. In the savior-faire released by the house this month, its emblematic codes as well as works created for Dior by the Italian artist Pietro Ruffo are transposed onto fabric through a first essential step, colourisation, thanks to the method of pen engraving.

Dior
Courtesy of Dior
Dior
Courtesy of Dior

The intricate artwork is adorned onto the highest quality silk inside the House’s Italian Ateliers, through silkscreen or inkjet printing. In the next phase, the silks are repeatedly passed through a halo of steam, then washed in successive baths until the ideal look and feel has been achieved. Once cut by hand, the squares are frayed or rolled in a final finishing touch.

The AW22 ready-to-wear collection debuted in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in March. The whimsical (and at times haunted) looks were rooted in fairytales such as Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and English novelist, Angela Carter’s chilling adaption of Little Red Riding Hood, titled The Bloody Chamber. 

Dior
Courtesy of Dior

“In every collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri chooses a territory where the time-space dimension is erased: suggestions and intentions give form and contours to an articulated constellation of clothes and accessories,” the show’s notes read. “A network of symbols, the tale is hardly just a means of escape: it serves to challenge and revisit stereotypes and archetypes. It consists of a narrative projected into the future.”

Discover the elegant world of Dior Silk, here.