'Big Aura', installation for Dior Haute Couture Show Sping-Summer 2024

Artist Isabella Ducrot's installation, Big Aura, adorns the walls of the room hosting the presentation of the Dior haute couture collections in the Rodin Museum gardens. For the set design of this Dior haute couture spring-summer 2024 show, twenty-three oversized dresses, some five meters high, are arranged on a composition of irregular black stripes reminiscent of weft and warp. They echo the dresses of Ottoman sultans studied by Isabella Ducrot. An abstract symbolization of the garment which emblemizes a power that transcends the body.

In contrast with the elaboration of the most precious fabrics, squares do not hide the nakedness of the structure required for its existence; on the contrary, they exalt it, declaring in a striking manner that fabric is a conciliation between elements in extreme opposition. The square refers to warp and weft, the two elements that intersect and become the place of all possibilities. An artwork in itself celebrating the plurality of savoir-faire: embroidery, block printing and weaving. Carried out by the Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft, it spotlights exceptional textiles thanks to ancestral looms specially reassembled for the Dior spring-summer 2024 haute couture show.