Excavating the Past, Defining the Future
Review of Dior Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Mackenzie Richard
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Romantic, Archival, & Evolutionary
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fall 2025 collection was not just a success—it was a defining moment in her tenure at Dior.
It managed to honor the house’s legacy while pushing its aesthetic forward, striking the delicate balance between historical reverence and modern reinvention. The collection reworked signature Dior codes—sharp tailoring, structured outerwear, and romantic flourishes—through a darker, more intellectually charged lens, proving that the Dior woman is not just a figure of elegance but of depth, resilience, and evolution. The craftsmanship remained impeccable, the storytelling was layered and compelling, and the collection itself felt as grand and cinematic as the house deserves. While some of Chiuri’s past collections have been criticized for being too commercially safe–
This season felt bold, poetic, and unapologetically Dior
—a reminder that the brand’s power lies not just in its past, but in its ability to rewrite history for the future.
This season, Chiuri presented a meditation on fashion as a living archive—a place where history, identity, and transformation converge. Set against a backdrop evoking geological shifts, prehistoric remnants, and aristocratic echoes, the collection engaged in a dialogue between past and future, preservation and reinvention.
At its core, the collection posed a series of questions: How does fashion carry history forward while allowing for reinvention? What does it mean to reclaim past references and reframe them for the present? How do garments serve as tools for both self-expression and societal evolution?
With historical fashion references ranging from Gianfranco Ferré’s architectural tailoring to the ruffs of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Chiuri explored the fluidity of identity and the echoes of history in contemporary design. But this was not an exercise in nostalgia—it was a study in how the past is woven into the present, constantly reshaped by cultural shifts, personal expression, and the relentless passage of time.
THE DIRECTION
Rather than treating the set and garments as separate elements, the show placed them in direct conversation. The dark-to-light progression mirrored the earth’s continuous transformation, just as the collection itself evolved—from structure to fluidity, from precision to unraveling softness.
This interplay of contrasts defined the collection: Structure vs. Softness, History vs. Modernity, Opulence vs. Utility, & Preservation vs. Reinvention
The imagery of the swing and “Once Upon a Time” suggested a story not of fairy tale romance, but of history in flux—of survival, adaptation, and transformation.
Fashion, like nature, is never static. This collection felt as if it had excavated the past and reshaped it for today, reinforcing Dior’s legacy as both a historical artifact and an evolving force.
THE QUOTE
Exploring the stories crisscrossing fashion and its digressions allows us to celebrate a femininity that projects itself and dreams towards possible futures by mixing evocations of a past that is ever closer to the contemporary wardrobe.
THE WRAP UP
This collection placed Dior into a time capsule—not to preserve it, but to expose how fashion is constantly in motion, shaped by forces greater than itself. The clothes, much like the shifting landscapes of the set, felt both historical and forward-facing, revealing fashion as a geological and evolutionary force rather than a static relic.
Maria Grazia Chiuri leaned into a darker, more structured aesthetic, drawing inspiration from French history, gothic romance, and revolutionary tailoring.
The result was a collection that felt intellectual, brooding, and aristocratic, a departure from softer femininity but one that still upheld Dior’s signature craftsmanship.
If previous Dior collections have often prioritized wearability, this one struck a balance—remixing historic Dior codes into something more cinematic and conceptually rich. It suggested that the Dior woman of Fall 2025 is not merely dressing for the present but carrying the weight of history—while actively shaping the future.
