TRENDS

The Avenue Montaigne fashion house chose the first day of this May's Film Festival to unveil its new store in multiple shades of grey.

Dior loves stars and they return the compliment, with Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard, Natalie Portman, Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, Eva Green, Robert Pattinson and Jude Law presently inspiring its creations. So 11 May was a propitious day for the famous haute-couture house to inaugurate its new showcase opposite a Palais des Festivals packed out with film celebrities. This superb store designed by architect Peter Marino displays the world of Dior over three floors decorated throughout in every nuance of grey – Christian Dior's signature colour – to keep the great couturier ever-present in our minds. In metallic, cloudy, hi-design, soft, mirror, moiré, marbled and woven versions, grey dresses the space in chic comfort and beautifully sets off the Dior collections' treasures: ready-to-wear, gemstone and costume jewellery, timewear, accessories, footwear, leather goods, perfumes etc. Even the daylight is skilfully managed by silvered “ribbon curtains” in articulated mesh.

Cult pieces
Artworks and select furnishings add the finishing touch to this fashion temple. In the entrance, a rotunda bench by Claude Lalanne. Wouter Hoste lamps catch the eye. A staircase decorated with an animated mural by Oyoram and at its foot a Nick van Woert sculpture. On the first floor we admire a table by Eric Schmitt and sit in one of Russel Woodard's chairs to peruse the women's shoes and ready-to-wear collection. The leather goods occupy a choice place, shelves graced with iconic models reinvented every season: Lady Dior in new colours, Diorama in different sizes, the very latest Diorever. For this occasion the Lady Dior bag in emerald-green crocodile with “camera and palm tree” ornaments has just been released in a limited edition. One display case exhibits the new Rose des Vents jewellery inspired by Emilia Clarke, while the Bar suit, Christian Dior's famed invention, presents in ever more variants. Downstairs, all in black-and-white contrast, is about the men, the clothing collection designed by Kris van Assche the star here. The stripped-back minimalist decor beautifully sets off its sober, contemporary elegance punctuated by bright colours and streetwear borrowings.

7 La Croisette, Cannes
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