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Background:

This week, Christian Dior offered its pre-fall 2023 assortment on the Gateway of India monument in Mumbai, marking the primary standalone present from a European luxurious megabrand within the nation.

It was a historic event for trend in India, which is projected to quickly turn into the world’s fastest-growing main financial system, in line with the Worldwide Financial Fund. With that, Dior’s look in Mumbai may show to be a seminal second: When Fendi staged a present on the Nice Wall of China in 2007, it helped catalyse greater than a decade of progress within the Chinese language luxurious market.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the inventive director of girls’s at Christian Dior since 2016, sits down with BoF’s Imran Amed on the Istituto Marangoni in Mumbai to debate the present, her intimate relationship with India and appreciation for Indian artisanship.

“India has an enormous historical past, a 6000-year historical past in textile type and embroidery,” mentioned Chiuri. “That is a part of the tradition.”

Key Insights:

• For Chiuri, Dior’s Mumbai present was the fruits of a long-held ambition to current a group in India on account of her love for the nation’s conventional artisans. “We’re actually pleased as a result of it’s a dream that we’ve had for a very long time. It’s very private for me … it’s not a easy trend present,” she mentioned.
• Extra than simply displaying the gathering within the metropolis, Chiuri wove native artisans’ creativity into the gathering by means of an ongoing partnership with The Chanakya College of Craft, co-creating intricately embroidered clothes with references to India’s wealthy cultural heritage. “We’re creating a brand new sort of trendy embroidery that was not achieved earlier than,” she mentioned.
• When Chiuri met Karishma Swali, managing director of the Mumbai-based export atelier Chanakya Worldwide and the founding father of the The Chanakya College of Craft, on her first journey to India, it sparked a friendship which has spanned over 20 years, in addition to quite a few skilled collaborations. “This is a crucial collaboration that I’ve had for a very long time with Karishma, with this unimaginable household and firm …  I began to work with them in 1992,” Chiuri mentioned. “We grew up collectively … our creativity and our discussions had been so essential in my profession.”

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