Images by Alice Mann
It’s true, all the bad news flashing across our screens daily has made us a bit woozy. Yet when the new Dior Fall 2022 collection campaign was released on Wednesday, we really thought we had passed out, and woken up in another era, in that special time before grunge came along and ruined everything, stylistically.
Seriously, the Catwoman shades, the very skinny black ties on crisp white shirts, the sheer, lacy black (goth) skirts, the puffy coats, the chunky black boots…not to mention the asymmetrical hair and cornrows, had us feeling like we’d just stepped into a Siouxsie and the Banshees fan club meeting in 1988. But Maria Grazia Chiuri‘s impossibly cool new collection was actually aesthetically and ideologically inspired by the women who inspired Monsieur Dior himself, including his beloved sister Catherine, his technical director Marguerite Carré, and his cherished muse Mizza Bricard.
The campaign itself was shot by another particularly inspiring woman, South African photographer Alice Mann, who won renown for her 2018 Drummies series of images of female drum majorette teams. She perfectly captures a sense of steely feminine self-determination peeking through the fog of ennui that generally comes with living through such oppressive times (the Cold War and nuclear threats then, a deadly pandemic, an assault on women’s rights, and the threat of WWIII now).
But the collection was also designed around the motto of L’union fait la force, “strength through unity,” with Dior and Grazia Chiuri meaning to remind us of the importance and intractability of our collective sisterhood. That the clothes also happen to pair perfectly with a Sisters of Mercy soundtrack just makes it all the more awesome.
