This time, it was Samantha McCoach and her decade-old kilt brand, Le Kilt that worked with the Dior team to add authenticity to the folded skirts that abounded on the catwalk. But Maria Grazia also talked of visiting wool mills dotted around the Inner Hebrides with Johnstons of Elgin and visiting Harris Tweed to choose a fabric from their vast archives and create a new Dior colourway that came out – yellows and purples!
Dior mines its history to find links between the location and the Cruise shows – from Seville to Mexico City and now Perth, Scotland where Gleneagles held a charity fashion show with Dior back in 1955. So the alliance between the French House and Scotland are sound and served as an intriguing cornerstone for the atelier to continue to explore collaborative projects such as this.
The collection itself – part punk, part Mary Queen of Scots, part New Look – was a chic meander through counter-culture, the importance of embroidery and symbols as language. Velvet and lace, emblematic tartan, denim and T-shirts with studs created looks that we know the hundreds of VIP customers invited to the event left the gardens panting with anticipation.
The show proved to be not just a show but forged a narrative which harmoniously merged the past, present, and future throughout a garden that impressed. There's a reason why Dior resonates with so many, and Maria Grazia Chiuri's bold bet that designing for women who are "bossy, nags, fierce and emotional", the monikers embroidered into leather pieces in her show, meant that her tribe – rain or shine – will follow.
