Dior gave Paris Fashion Week a shot of Olympic adrenaline on Tuesday with a troop of athletic Amazons striding down its runway amid whizzing arrows. Not for the first time, Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri dipped into her feminist quiver to deliver modern, technological looks for strong women taking on the world. Almost entirely in black and white, her spring-summer collection was inspired by the Amazon dress created by the fabled French brand's founder, Christian Dior, in 1951.
To hammer the mythological point home, Chiuri had the London-based Neapolitan artist SAGG Napoli -- an archer -- fire off arrow after arrow at a target in the middle of the runway as her models marched steelily down either side. A plexiglass screen ensured no one was skewered but still the heartbeat quickened, helped on by thundering Italian techno. Chiuri, who loves to use stirring quotes on her creations, cited her fellow Italian after a summer of Olympic and Paralympic triumphs in the French capital: "May the building of a strong mind and a strong body be the greatest work I have ever made.
" As for the clothes, asymmetry was almost the rule with one shoulder bare on many dresses, blouses and tops -- all very early 2000s, leaning into younger clients' love of the look. The sportswear -- heavy on bomber jackets and parachute trousers -- dripped with elaborate zips and straps, with Chiuri stretching out the omnipresent "Miss Dior" logo to its extremes on the clothes until it almost seemed to becom.