Dior’s contribution to the Olympic opening ceremony is an ode to female empowerment

Sport and haute couture might not always be an obvious combination. But, when it comes to Dior, the old cliché of ‘opposites attract’ rings true. Matching its perpetual affinity with the sporting industry, the fashion house has launched their own line of gym equipment and partnered with football club Paris Saint-Germaine in recent years. Dior’s latest rendezvous with its unlikely partner, however, saw the brand become a key player within the Olympic opening ceremony, hosted by the maison’s home nation. 

While the Olympic Games celebrates the talent of the world’s greatest athletes bar none, Dior’s focal point at the event was that of female strength — an especially cherished value of Maria Grazia Chiuri, whose sport-inspired garments have characterised her eight-year-long stint as the brand’s creative director. Her most recent collection, seen on the runway this June, was aptly inspired by the Olympics, while her 2016 Dior debut paid tribute to the power and beauty of female fencers. 

At the opening ceremony, Dior’s celebration of female strength was fittingly multifaceted. Of the spectacle’s twelve tableaus, the fashion house dressed five of the star performers. Amongst them was Lady Gaga — accompanied by her 12 dancers — whose feather-clad gown (a true Moulin Rouge extravaganza) harked back to Dior’s ballet-costume designs for choreographer Roland Petit, while also paying tribute to the emblematic French performer Zizi Jeanmaire. 

As further testimony to female empowerment, the brand dressed Aya Nakamura in a swathe of golden feathers (an ode to the brand’s signature colour), while Axelle Saint-Cirel wore a draped gown, representative of the feminist Freedom Woman Now flag. The maison also dressed Juliette Armanet, who sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” as a timely call to peace and freedom, before Celine Dion ended her lengthy singing hiatus, closing the ceremony in a dress hand-beaded for the star at the 30 Montaigne atelier — a literal thousand-hour-long feat.

While Dior may have brought a flurry of beads and feathers to the Olympics, this amalgamation of art and sport pronounces a higher message on the world stage — one that speaks to the importance of female empowerment against a backdrop where women’s rights are dwindling.