Dior Names Athens for its ‘Croisière 2022’ Show

Dior’s “Croisière 2021” collection was a July 2020 presentation in Italy. Photo source: Dior

The world famous house of Dior is scheduled to present its “Croisière 2022” collection in Athens on June 17, the French fashion designer announced on Friday.

Dior “has chosen Athens, an exceptional destination, cradle of Western civilization and European arts, for the ‘Croisière 2022’ collection,” it said in a statement.

The show will feature the inter-season collection of Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s creative director.

Athens will be Dior’s first live event after a July 2020 presentation held in the central square of Lecce in Italy. Though the fashion house did not clarify whether it will be an in-person event, it noted that the show will be held in full compliance with Covid-19 protocols.

Dior’s “Croisière 2021” collection. Photo source: Dior

The event is mainly aimed at “promoting the creativity of local artists and artisans” impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, said Dior. It will also commemorate a photo shoot for Paris Match at the Acropolis 70 years ago which featured the fall 1951 collection captured by photographer Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini. Christian Dior models were shot under the Caryatids of the Erechtheion temple on the north side of the Acropolis.

“Greece is a country that has always been close to my heart,” said Chiuri.

Photo: Ministry of Culture / Gavriil Papadiotis

“As a native of Rome, to me it is an essential and highly inspiring cradle of culture, literature and creation in all its forms. From mythology to the ‘Odyssey,’ and from architecture and philosophy to priceless crafts, Athens for me represents a dream destination for staging a show and celebrating, more than ever, the magic and transmission of cultures,” she told WWD.

Dior has not yet named a specific Athens location for its June 17 runway show.

Earlier on Friday, however, the Greek culture ministry confirmed that Dior representatives had already visited Athens, and have requested to be allowed access next week to the Acropolis, the Irodion Theater, the Temple of Hephaestus, the Panathenaic Stadium, the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, and the Temple of Zeus in Nemea.