Courtesy of Dior
At Couture week, it’s not just the fashion designs that have to be extra – the sets are also larger than life. At the Dior Fall 2019 Couture show last week, artist Penny Slinger collaborated with the house’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri to transform Dior’s historic Parisian atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne into a gothic mansion that provided the perfect backdrop to a collection featuring equally dark and dramatic looks.
In this exclusive video courtesy of Dior, Slinger explains the “alchemy” behind the set design, from the gnarled tree at the foot of the stairway entrance representing earth, through the water salon and images of fire to walls projecting powerful emblems of women holding rock formations.
The artist also created a “wearable dolls house” – a dress design that was sculpted to take on the appearance of the exterior of the iconic building, reincarnated in gold lamé and worn upon a full-body fishnet suit.
“I’ve always been a collage artist,” says Slinger in the short film. “Collage means, for me, bringing together pieces of reality into a new reality, breaking the confines of how things are seen and shaking up the mundane world.”
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