Dior to replant 164 trees used in Paris Fashion Week show
Luxury fashion house stages pop-up forest to display spring/summer 2020 collection
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Your support makes all the difference.Paris Fashion Week got off to a scenic but sustainable start on Tuesday evening with the Dior show, which was staged in a temporary grove comprising 164 trees.
Using so many trees for a 10-minute fashion show might not sound like the most eco-friendly of measures, but the fashion house has vowed to re-plant each of them in sustainability projects around Paris, allowing them to continue growing in a natural environment.
Additionally, the trees, which came from nurseries in France, Germany and Italy, were tagged with stories of their origins and explanations as to where they would be repurposed following the show.
At a time when the fashion industry is under more scrutiny than ever before in terms of its carbon footprint, Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri was wise to create a collection inspired by the natural world.
Chiuri's stage was not the only nod to sustainability. Several models wore their hair in plaited braids, a hairstyle that many have come to associate with 16-year-old Swedish environmentalist, Greta Thunberg.
The clothes themselves also clearly referenced the natural world. Models walked down the foliage-filled runway in an array of earthy garments tied up with rope belts and covered in botanical prints.
Florals, while not necessarily groundbreaking, featured prominently, with petals stitched onto canvas suits and appliqué blooms blossoming from Hessian maxi skirts and pinafores.
Accessories followed a ”gardening tools, but make it fashion” aesthetic, with woven straw hats and generous tote bags large enough to stash a sneeboer and some scissors.
Meanwhile, fans of Dior's signature frothy tulle gowns were appeased with embellished mesh versions adorned with thistles and poppies.
But the collection also had a feminist edge, which has been typical for the label since Chiuri was appointed in 2016 and made headlines with her "We should all be feminists" T-shirts, a slogan coined in an essay by writer Chimanmanda Ngozi Adichie.
This time around, the female trailblazer inspiring Chiuri was Christian Dior's sister, Catherine, who survived capture and torture in a German concentration camp in the Second World War and returned to Paris to become the first woman to have a florist's licence.
The front row was also filled with powerful women haling from a range of disciplines, with Jennifer Lawrence, Karlie Kloss and Julianne Moore all in attendance.
See all the photos from the spring/summer 2020 Dior show by clicking through the gallery above.
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