Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri is not one to shy away from using fashion to voice out her and the brand's political sentiments. You may recall that the luxury fashion house once sent models down the runway in wordy tees that read We Should All Be Feminists during its Spring 2017 show, pulled from a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quote. Dior followed this up with a reference to Linda Nochlin's essay entitled Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? for Ready-to-Wear 2017.
Now, Maria brings the slogan trend to a whole new level as she debuts tattoos on her surrealism-inspired Haute Couture Spring 2018 collection. To complement the clothes and the work of milliner Stephen Jones, the designer lifted lines from André Breton, the founder of the surrealist movement and author of the Surrealist Manifesto.
Emblazoned on the models' décollatage are the French words: Au départ il ne s'agit pas de comprendre mais bien d'aimer, which translates to "In the beginning it is not a matter of understanding, but of loving."
Others paraded L'amour est toujours deviant vous. Aimes!—"Love is always before you. Love!"
Some read L'imaginaire est ce qui tend à devenir réel that meant "The imaginary is what tends to become real."
André's words about love and understanding aptly accompany a collection that's a tribute to surrealist Leonor Fini, a female artist who not only worked with Christian Dior himself in the 1930s but whose life's work highlighted women as powerful beings.
