Dior releases its Spring 2022 campaign, with its show-stopping, jewel-like colors and sporty vibe. Marc Bohan’s 1961 ‘Slim Look’ wasn’t the only important heritage reference mined for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s spring 2022 show. Bohan’s Dior Sport line was also center stage.

The Dior design vision represents a 180-degree turn in the road from Dior’s Olympics Grecian goddess resort show. As opposed to enduring the pandemic, Chiuri chose to fight back with bold colored, contagious optimism and the ‘60s global spirit of female liberation.

Seeing the unity of dress among young women from America to Britain, Sudan and Afghanistan — YES, Sudan and Afghanistan — reminds us of the perilous, patriarchal attempts worldwide to deny women their own self-determination. The images from that time period are almost impossible to believe, and they certainly created a horrific backlash against women’s fashion integration into global public spaces, previously occupied by men.

Italian artist Anna Paparatti and the legendary Roman nightclub the Piper Club inspired Chiuri’s design direction, one that pays homage to 1960s pop style with a crayola-colors explosion of boundary-crashing, purposeful ‘60s design.

The Spring 2022 campaign is lensed by Brigitte Niedermair [IG] and is timed with the opening of Dior’s new boutique at Bergdorf Goodman New York. References to the new Dior Bergdorf shop — see end of post — are lensed by Francis Dzikowski [IG] courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman.

Music for the events is set to the beat of Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’, with video by Fabien Baron and choreography by Matilda Fleberg.

The Campaign

Models include Maryel Uchida, Naomi Ekindi, Sculy Mejia and Steinberg. Performers Angela Arcueno, Ahtayaw Ea, Soleila Chaou, Nicolas Huchard, Shirwann Jeammes, Laureen Parruitte and Julia Spiesser also appear in the Dior Sporty runway and campaign images.

Bergdorf’s NYC Spring 2022 Dior Shop

“Since the worldwide success of the New Look, Bergdorf Goodman has been one of our closest partners, bringing Dior fashion to the United States,” Pietro Beccari, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, told WWD. “Today, it seemed natural to us to celebrate and revive more than ever the steadfast bond that unites Dior to this unique address and more globally to the United States, a country where Christian Dior has traveled extensively and where our house continues to grow through multiple ambitious projects, exhibitions, launches, and the creation of new boutiques and concepts.”

Dior has custom-designed the scenography for its new shop at Bergdorf’s. “It’s reminiscent of the Dior spring ready-to-wear 2022 show, which paid tribute to the work of iconic 1960s Italian art figure Anna Paparatti,” Beccari said. “The windows overlooking Fifth Avenue reveal an initiatory journey where ‘play’ becomes an exciting place of reflection, questioning the rules of art and life, in bright, joyful colors.”

Beccari further characterized the setup inside Bergdorf’s Dior boutique as “a representation of a spectacular game board with oversize steps to welcome customers.” Indeed, the endless march of female emancipation — a centuries-long march is deeply embedded in Chiuri’s own mind — and continually plays out in design narratives on the Dior runway.