For Cruise 2026, Maria Grazia Chiuri brought Dior home to Rome — both literally and metaphorically. The show was staged at Villa Albani Torlonia, an 18th-century estate not usually open to the public, but the real backdrop was Chiuri’s own relationship with the city. The collection, as she put it, was an “autobiographical synthesis”— a kind of personal mythology told through fashion, memory, and references to the Roman past.
Rain fell as guests arrived, but it didn’t dampen the mood. What followed was a dreamy procession of lace gowns, military jackets, velvet minis, and sweeping white skirts, many of them paired with tailored waistcoats and structured coats. The silhouettes referenced centuries of dress codes — from chasubles and men’s riding jackets to mid-century couture — but were styled with the light hand that’s become a Chiuri signature.
Rome’s long-standing affair with cinema surfaced throughout the collection. Matteo Garrone’s short film Les Fantômes du Cinéma, released alongside the show, cast the models as ghostly figures wandering the villa grounds. The collection echoed that mood: Fellini’s 8½, the Fontana sisters, and Anita Ekberg’s iconic look in La Dolce Vita all came through in details, especially in the velvet dresses that cut through the soft whites with black and red.
Chiuri began with Mimì Pecci Blunt, a 20th-century arts patron whose world spanned Rome, Paris, and New York. Her extravagant costume balls inspired a sort of imagined Bal de l’Imagination, where fantasy met ritual. That spirit ran through the collection in flashes of surrealism and theatricality.
Masks and trompe-l’œil dresses pushed that idea further. The masks — some baroque, some minimal — hinted at the power of disguise, while the trompe-l’œil detailing played with perception: lace that looked carved, bodices that mimicked the naked body. It was one of the collection’s most compelling turns, folding performance into craft without slipping into costume.
Even the most elaborate pieces, such as bas-relief textures and gold embroidery, felt considered rather than ornamental.
Chiuri also brought in collaborators from the Chanakya School of Craft in India and students from the Roman Pietro School for Embroidery, continuing her practice of making space for skilled, often overlooked artisans in couture spaces.
The result wasn’t dramatic reinvention. Instead, it was a collection that let its references breathe — cinema, theatre, mythology, fashion history — and made room for something more fluid: daydream, memory, imagination. It didn’t try to define Rome. It simply acknowledged that its contradictions, or what Chiuri called its ‘bella confusione’, are part of what makes it so enduring.
Discover the collection here and rewatch Garrone’s short film here.
photography. Laura Sciacovelli, Dior
words. Gennaro Costanzo
