Dior goes back to the 1950s as Paris fashion week opens

Fashion house upturns decade’s retrograde image with aesthetic of French muses

The 1950s were much cooler than you think. That was the message as Paris fashion week opened with a Dior show that upturned that decade’s retrograde image. Instead of pastel sweaters and milkshakes, this was the aesthetic of Juliette Gréco and the cafe society of Paris’s Rive Gauche (left bank) – strong black coffee, and little black dresses to match.

The designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, set out to reclaim the 1950s for France, because they have been monopolised in popular memory by the US, she said backstage at the show. “I realised that like many foreigners, so much of my image of France was formed by Paris as it is seen through an American lens,” she said, referencing the romantic images of the photographer Richard Avedon, as well as Hollywood films.