Dior’s Paris store in avenue Montaigne morphs into giant protest banner

By

Tanissia Issad

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jul 3, 2018

When Ruth Bell, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s favourite model, opened Dior’s Autumn/Winter 2018 show, she wore a sweater with the words ‘C’est non non non et non’ (‘It’s no, no, no and no’). The luxury label’s creative director has now decided to replicate this protest message, blanketing with it the exterior of the label’s store on the avenue Montaigne, Paris, for the arrival of the collection in-store.
 

Besides this slogan, originally featured on a 1960s Dior scarf, the store’s outside walls are decorated with other protest mantras and catchphrases, from ‘Women Empowerment’ to ‘Youthquake’ (a cultural movement thus labelled by former Vogue Editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland in 1965), ‘La beauté est dans la rue’ (‘Beauty is in the streets’, from the May 68 student demos) and ‘Women's Rights are Human Rights’.  

The new store décor is uber-visual and highly Instagrammable, as was that of the show by the Bureau Betak creative agency, a way for Maria Grazia Chiuri to stress how important the issue of equality of rights and duties is for her. In her own way, she too is celebrating the protest spirit of the May 1968 days.

It is a remarkable installation, which may well be replicated on the façades of other Dior stores outside France in the coming weeks.

The French luxury label, which staged its Autumn/Winter 2018 Haute Couture show on July 2, will also be featured from next February at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, with the highly popular ‘Christian Dior, couturier du rêve’ exhibition, which will take on the title of  ‘Designers of Dreams’.