Apr 23, 2021
Lord Byron would surely have approved. In a year in which Greece celebrates the bicentennial of its independence,
Christian Dior will stage its next cruise show in Athens.
“The house of Dior has chosen Athens, an exceptional destination – the cradle of Western Civilization and European arts – to present the Cruise 2022 collection designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri,” the house said in a release.
Dior’s next cruise show will be held in Athens on June 17 “in full compliance with current sanitary measures.”
A cruise show that also comes 70 years after Monsieur Dior, the house’s founder, unveiled a couture collection at the Acropolis, before the Parthenon, the classical temple to Athena that is arguably the single most influential work of architecture in European history.
Dior released a photo of Monsieur Dior’s historic fashion event shot by photographer Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini for Paris Match, capturing eight models in all their glory at the Acropolis in the 1951 collection.
Dior did not reveal the exact location of Chiuri’s latest cruise show, but underlined that “this ground-breaking event will showcase the creativity of local artists and artisans.”
Chiuri has now circled the Mediterranean with her cruise collections for Dior. Her previous two cruise shows were in Marrakech and Lecce, in each city staging gala sunset soirées in historic locations. In both cases enriching the collections with critically acclaimed and commercially savvy collaborations and link-ups with local artists and artisans throughout Africa and in the boot of Italy.
“Through these new dialogues, reinventing Dior excellence, the show – which will prolong the magic of the presentation in Lecce, Puglia, in 2020,” Dior stressed.
Greece began its war for independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, on March 25, which is thus celebrated as Independence Day. The arrival of Byron, then the most famous poet in the world, in Greece was vital for rallying international support for the independence movement. He even sold his estate in England to finance the war effort, though he was to die of fever at the siege of the fortress of Lepanto.