MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI

Paris Fashion Week is back after a coronavirus-related hiatus.

Dior has ventured back into the real world after more than a year away, with an in-person show for its fall-winter 2021-22 Haute Couture collection in Paris.

PARIS – Christian Dior on Tuesday was the first major fashion house to stage a traditional ready-to-wear runway show in Paris since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. The show headlined the first full day of a hybrid-style Paris Fashion Week. Guests were unusually relaxed, with some fashion editors commenting that it was because they had not just flown in, exhausted, from a week of covering Milan. Paris, like Milan, is trying to kick off an unusual fashion season for spring-summer 2021. Coperni put on the first runway show of Paris Fashion Week, atop the Montparnasse Tower skyscraper building.

Models wear creations during the unveiling of the Dior 2021 cruise collection in Lecce, southern Italy, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. It is a decision we took in a very difficult moment, Dior CEO Pietro Beccari said in a phone interview. Chiuri chose Lecce in a nostalgia bid, having spent many summers in the Salento region where her father was born. Besides the cruise show, Dior this month opened a five-story flagship store in Paris, launched a collaboration with Nike and its digital show for menswear. We are a fashion brand, and I think this injection of novelties keeps the interest of many of our clients.