Today in Italy, Maria Grazia Chiuri invited us into a reverie – a cinematic, sumptuous, and surreal dreamscape that is as Roman as it is romantic. For Dior Cruise 2026, presented in the storied gardens of 18th-century Villa Albani Torlonia, Chiuri conjured a “bella confusione” – the beautiful confusion once proposed by Ennio Flaiano for Fellini’s 8½. Here, in the folds of marble mythology and baroque decadence, fashion became an act of memory, rebellion, and imagination.
The location ...
Once the playground of Cardinal Alessandro Albani and a haven for Enlightenment-era antiquarians, the gardens of 18th-century Villa Albani Torlonia are a living gallery of classical grandeur. Terraces, fountains, and mythological statues unfold through manicured paths designed by Carlo Marchionni, echoing the villa’s devotion to art and archaeology. Generally closed to visitors, Dior is one of few to be granted permission to the space.
The guests ...
Guests at the show included Han So-Hee, Natalie Portman, Ashley Park, The White Lotus Season 3’s Sarah Catherine Hook, Deva Cassel and Rosamund Pike.
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The collection ...
This collection drew its pulse from the Eternal City, refracted through the lens of Mimì Pecci Blunt – a legendary patroness of the arts whose Bal de l’Imagination served as the show’s guiding spirit. With Mimì as muse, Chiuri resurrected a world – one where the past danced with the living.
The silhouettes were knowingly theatrical, nodding to costume and ecclesiastical dress but reimagined through a contemporary eye. Military jackets with black piping, chasuble-inspired dresses, and full skirts paired with men’s waistcoats spoke to a playful tension between structure and fluidity, tradition and transgression.
As an added surprise, the runway closed out with an Haute Couture collection – 24 gowns to be exact. There was velvet in gold, red, and black – a nod to Rome’s cinematic past and the Fontana sisters who dressed Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. Meanwhile, white, in its infinite expressions, acted as a palette cleanser – dense silks, sheer tulles, lace, and cottons that flickered like ghosts through the garden.
Watch the show ...
