It is not every Dior show that opens with a skirl of bagpipes, three different ways to wear violet tartan, and a sporran dangling from a belt in place of a clutch bag tucked under the arm. Dior’s first catwalk show in Scotland for 70 years, held in Perthshire on Monday evening, was a feistily gorgeous affair.
The pomp and ceremony of a Parisian fashion house met its match in the natural grandeur and splendour of Scotland. Dior is a luxury juggernaut that its designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, has described as being “like the national football team” of fashion; but the gardens of Drummond Castle in Perthshire are also no stranger to glamour, having appeared on screen in Rob Roy and Outlander. It proved a formidable combination. To judge by the weather, the auld alliance between France and Scotland seems to hold: the topiary-studded paths of formal gardens known as “the Versailles of Scotland” became a dazzling catwalk under clear blue skies.
Chiuri went deep into Scottish influence with every look. There were maps of Scotland traced on to dresses, Jacobean black velvets, wading gaiters, and a palette of yellows, purples and greens which Chiuri borrowed from the “cinematic” landscape seen while visiting tweed and cashmere suppliers, during the planning of this collection. Chain mail details and tough leather boots hinted at Scotland’s sometimes bloody history. (There were notes, too, of Game of Thrones.) Chiuri, 60, is of a generation whose chief association of tartan is with punk; the ghost of Vivienne Westwood appeared here, along with that of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Chiuri thoroughly mined the beauty of Scotland for items that will ring the coffers in Dior boutiques, but she also gave back. Kilts were made in collaboration with the young Scottish designer Samantha McCoach, whose Le Kilt label is updating the tradition for a new generation of wearers. Harris tweed, Johnstons of Elgin and Esk Cashmere have all benefited from contracts to supply clothes for this collection. “This is not just a moment of pretend Scottishness engineered for the catwalk, it is making real work for those Scottish businesses,” said Justine Picardie, the author of several books about Dior, who collaborated with Chiuri on her research.
Backstage before the show, Chiuri said she wanted to highlight the textile heritage of Scotland. “When we talk about fashion now, we often speak about brands,” she said. “But really fashion is about people who make clothes, and I want to talk about them instead.”