The luxury sector experienced a period of euphoria between 2021 and 2024. Buoyed by strong growth, major brands began organizing additional shows, especially for their commercial pre-collections, which had not previously graced the runways. With this golden age now over, the number of shows began to decline. This spring, only Dior continued to think (very) big, with a show in Kyoto on April 15 for the Fall 2025 collection, followed by another in Rome on May 27 for its Cruise 2026 collection.
French fashion houses' shows abroad generally serve commercial purposes (to attract local customers) or communication goals (to tell their story). Dior's show in Kyoto is a synthesis of both. Japan, with its weak yen attracting Chinese tourists, has once again become a strategic market for the luxury industry. Moreover, since taking over the women's lines in 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri has consistently revisited locations linked to Dior's history.
In recent years, she has traveled to New York, where Christian Dior opened a boutique in 1948; Scotland, where they presented collections in 1951 and 1955; Mumbai, where designer Marc Bohan organized a grand charity event in 1962. "Dior's history is linked to travel and cultural exchanges. Organizing shows worldwide is a way to deepen this heritage but also to revisit these places through my eyes as a woman and artistic director in the 21st century," explained Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Between founding his brand in 1947 and his death a decade later, Christian Dior did not have time to visit Japan, but he was deeply interested in it. In the post-war period, international recovery plans encouraged exchanges between Japan and other textile industries. The French couturier collaborated with Tatsumura, a textile craft house founded in 1894 in Kyoto, and crafted outfits from its fabrics inspired by his "New Look" his iconic silhouette with a cinched waist and full skirt. He designed for a major Japanese department store "Diorpaletot" and "Diorcoat," models that hybridized European suits and kimonos. In 1957, he also began making the wedding dress for Princess Michiko, but did not have time to finish it – his successor Yves Saint Laurent completed it.
Beyond the Japanese history of Dior, Kyoto, the cradle of Japanese craftsmanship, fascinates Chiuri, who is eager to enrich her work with foreign expertise. "I have always been struck by how much we can have in common [with cultures seemingly very distant from our own]. Tools like the loom or needle exist almost everywhere but are used in very different ways. Craftsmanship allows us to understand the perpetual tension between what we have in common and what sets us apart," she said.
This Fall 2025 show (which Le Monde followed onscreen in Paris) was presented at nightfall, amid the cherry blossoms of the garden of the To-ji Buddhist temple, whose impressive 55-meter-high wooden pagoda is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This emblematic city location evokes the floral world that is both dear to Christian Dior and a recurring motif in Japanese textile ornamentation.
The collection seeks to reflect French couture and Japanese craftsmanship, without necessarily always merging them, playing with the contrasts between shapes and materials. A kimono in delicate jacquard woven with gold threads by Tatsumura is offset by a grosgrain belt with a metal clip closure. Conversely, a double-breasted jacket closed with a belt, like a kimono, is cut from moiré silk reminiscent of Dior's haute couture of the 1950s.
In addition to the shapes and materials, Chiuri is inspired by the two-dimensional construction method of the kimono for knit pieces that are both covering and supple, enveloping the body without constraint. The rules of origami folding led her to revisit classic pattern lines, for example on pants where a fabric panel folds over just one leg. The asymmetry is also depicted in the ornaments, including on a beige denim jumpsuit, where only the left side is decorated with cherry blossom branches, in a display of the void characteristic of Japanese aesthetics. Devoid of logos but precise in the work on Dior's codes, tinged with subtle Japanese references, this collection is successful. It demonstrates that beyond the setting, a foreign environment can truly nourish a designer's imagination.
In nine years, at a steady pace of at least six collections annually, Chiuri has established a signature wardrobe: wide and comfortable denim, asymmetrical white shirts, variations around the "New Look" that she softens, biker references in leather, long vestal dresses and so on. It is on this consistency that Dior (LVMH group) built its phenomenal growth, tripling its revenue between 2016 and 2023. In a declining market, this also justifies a change in artistic direction, which should be announced before the summer.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.