Going back to one’s roots is audaciously grounding. As Americans, we prioritize the idea of individuality while other cultures seem to value connection—a connection between people, a connection to nature, a connection to past and present. What we sometimes fail to realize is that by connecting, we are actually doing a service to ourselves as an individual. While connecting is a transcendent act of welcoming others, or the other, it’s also an opportunity to become more human, whole and then in tandem, a more evolved individual.
During this pandemic, we have the opportunity to think about connections outside ourselves in its deepest sense, because time has slowed down in a way. We’re home more often and have time to reflect on how we’ve been treating ourselves and others in the time before the pandemic. While I am using the lens of fashion to communicate the power of rooting and connecting, I invite you as the reader to find deep meaning in it and take from it what you will to help you in your own life.
One thing I have enjoyed in my free time during the pandemic is consuming content that stimulates me artistically and satiates me with food for thought. The Dior Haute Autumn Winter 2021 Couture collection was so bewitching to me when it debuted this past summer. Maria Grazia Chiuri has a way of breathing new life into a heritage brand while paying homage to its origins. During a time where an in-person fashion week was not feasible, Dior instead debuted their hot couture collection in a fantastical forest as a form of escapism: They whisked us to a land of make-believe things through a short film. There were animated Grecian statues, mermaids and human-tree hybrids.
Surrealist images manage to make visible what is in itself invisible. I’m interested in mystery and magic, which are also a way of exorcising uncertainty about the future,” Maria Gracia Chiuri said about the show on Dior’s website.
Throughout the digital work, two bell hops carried a dollhouse deep into the lush forest to give these creatures dresses and outfits straight from the atelier. I struggled to decide what was more breathtaking: the production, or the clothes themselves?
After beholding this spectacular spectacle, I wanted to put together a look identical to the skirt suits featured in the collection. A drop-waist jacket with a full skirt is classic Dior, and there are countless TikToks and reels to explain that if you want to embody the couture brand, those are the key ingredients. I’ve worn this vintage grey tweed skirt in a couple of blog posts before, but never with its structured jacket, for concern of looking too much like a girl out of a period drama. But one Monday, I was just feeling it. I was returning to my roots, coming home, to the forward thinker with a vintage soul, that I am. And I wanted to share with you all, dear readers.
Would you believe I wore this look out of time while delivering a report on-camera? Somehow it looked fantastic on the horizontal screen with a bold red lip, a gold chain necklace and gold and pearl clip-on earrings. I’m sure those that tune into my reports know that they can expect the unexpected when it comes to what I’ll wear. Everything about this jacket shouldn’t work, but it does: the slightly cartoonish buttons, the collar that conjures up the image of a frilled-neck lizard, the over-cuffed sleeves and the overaccentuated peplum waist. I absolutely love every detail and how it comes together.
It’s a lesson in unlikely connections of different entities, that individually are all so beautiful but can make magic when coming together. And for me, connecting to this look of the past to my present, I felt more grounded than I have in a long time.
Keeping it Krischic,
Kristin
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Keeping it Krischic 