Dior’s stunning autumn-winter 2025 show reflects the House’s love of Japanese style and influence …
From childhood, Christian Dior admired the Land of the Rising Sun from his home in France. “Large panels painted in imitation of Japanese prints adorned the staircase. These versions of Utamaro and Hokusai made up my Sistine Chapel. I can remember gazing at them for hours on end,” he recounted in his memoirs. Enthralled by the exoticism of the pagodas, flowers and birds depicted, he developed a passion for the cultural richness of the Japanese archipelago.
He would summon those inspirations throughout his life. For the fall-winter 1952 Christian Dior-New York line, he named one of his dresses Tokio. A year later, he created the spring-summer 1953 haute couture ensemble called Jardin japonais (Japanese Garden), featuring a repetitive motif of a bird on a blossoming cherry tree. The following year, he designed an outfit in Japanese brocade entitled Outamaro, made with fabrics from Tatsumura Textile, the prestigious Kyoto art textile atelier.
In 1953, Dior became the first Western couturier to offer his collections in Japan by developing partnerships with renowned houses. From that point onward, he enjoyed the steadfast support of major Japanese clients, many in the royal family. Indeed, in 1958 Dior designed the three dresses for the civil wedding ceremony of Princess Michiko, the future wife of Crown Prince Akihito.
Other creative directors followed his lead. Most memorably, John Galliano who drew inspiration from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly – which is set in Nagasaki – for the Dior spring-summer 2007 haute couture collection. Amid cherry blossom branches, he presented a succession of designs including an embroidered pink gazar suit with meticulous pleating evoking the technique of origami, as well as a linen coat wrapped in a print recalling Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Lotuses, birds, dragonflies and water lilies appeared on kimonos, skirts and sheath dresses embellished with lavish embroideries.
Which brings us to Maria Grazia Chiuri’s recent AW2025 show where she explored the kimono jacket and loose-belted coats. The show took place in the lesser known Toji garden in Kyoto saw models stroll through the cherry blossoms in undulating wide trousers and long skirts. There were fabulous florals and inky black ensembles. The overriding mood: flowy and feminine to herald a polished autumn.
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