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“With these shows, I really like to discover new supply. It’s the part of my work that I prefer because it means opening your mind to new techniques,” says Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, minutes before the Dior Cruise 2025 show on Monday evening. The show was held in the terraced gardens of Drummond Castle, Scotland — a venue she dubs “cinematic”.
The starting point of the collection was a charity ball held in 1955 at The Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland, where Christian Dior presented 172 looks from his spring/summer line. When building the collection, Chiuri found a series of photographs of women in couture dancing with men in kilts at the afterparty. She was inspired by this “youthful cultural exchange” and driven by a want to reproduce that emotion; so she began delving deeper into the archives. There, she found that Dior himself was at the time very interested in British fabrics, having worked with many local knit factories and weavers over the course of his career.
Exploring new sourcing opportunities for Dior is something Chiuri does consistently, as evidenced in her previous Cruise collections that have, in recent years, taken the house from Athens to Mumbai to Mexico City. “These days when we speak about fashion, we speak only about the brand,” she continues. “I want to show what’s behind the brand — different factories, different knowledge and people who are so innovative.”
The variety of local knowledge tapped by the Dior brand was once again exceptional, including fabric from Harris Tweed, knitwear from Esk Cashmere, tweeds from Johnstons of Elgin and ceremonial headwear by Robert Mackie, as well as one look created in partnership with Le Kilt’s Samantha McCoach.
Harris Tweed seems to have particularly excited Chiuri. It’s the only fabric in the world governed by its own Act of Parliament, The Harris Tweed Act of 1993, which guarantees that every stage of the artisanal process must be located in the islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Chiuri and her team travelled there last November to meet with weavers and explore the company’s archive.
“I’ve worked with Harris Tweed in the past, but I never visited them before,” she says. “They are a beautiful company. We went to the museum and found this beautiful map, so we also worked on this beautiful blanket that we use for some of the looks in the show. We also chose the check, the colours… The special colour was a more specific collaboration.”
The appreciation is two-way: “The Harris Tweed team is filled with pride to have our fabrics selected by the house of Dior,” says Margaret Macleod, CEO of Harris Tweed. “Our designer worked closely with Maria Grazia Chiuri and her team to build a colour palette influenced by their visit to the Outer Hebrides and patterns based on the traditional Scottish tartan. Working with Dior showcases to the world the value of our time-honoured fabric and demonstrates the importance of supporting Indigenous industries like ours.”
Dior’s knitwear team also visited the Esk Cashmere factory in Dumfriesshire. Esk Cashmere is a family-owned knitwear company that works with cashmere and Shetland yarns, exploring variations of the classic stitches and patterns characteristic of the country, including Fair Isle designs.
“We worked very closely together on the collection,” says Stuart Maxwell, owner of Esk Cashmere. “Cashmere knitwear must be made with yarn and spun with long-length animal fibres. There is no substitute here, and I found the Dior team’s understanding of the process very high — which made the process a pleasure.”
Jenny Urquhart, fourth-generation family member and vice-chair of Johnstons of Elgin, whose Elgin mill dates back to the 18th century, shares a similar sentiment: “For generations, our purpose has been in protecting and developing rare textile manufacturing craft skills. To have Maria Grazia Chiuri and her team select Scottish makers for the Dior show is not only a reflection of the quality and beauty of our work but an enormous endorsement and support for Scottish textile manufacturing.”
Chiuri attributes her collaborative way of working to her native country’s luxury manufacturing expertise. “My Italian background means that I find this way of working directly with the factory very normal,” Chiuri says. “It was probably for me the first shock, the first surprise, when I moved to Paris, where the tradition is very steeped in making everything inside the atelier. So it was a process trying to explain that my way of working included other companies. But we got there.”
“I am particularly proud that our house is unveiling its Cruise 2025 show in Scotland. The affinities and powerful cultural ties forged between Dior and this country have never ceased to unfold and grow over the decades through exceptional collaborations and events. This magnificent collection, dreamed up by Maria Grazia Chiuri, celebrates the creative dialogues with several highly talented Scottish artists and artisans,” adds Dior chairman and CEO Delphine Arnault.
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