Dior show packs drama and intrigue in Fellini-inspired love letter to Rome

Haute couture mixes with theatricality in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s deeply personal show, with hints this may be designer’s swan song

Dior’s first catwalk show in Rome was a night of high drama on and off the catwalk that left the fashion industry with a cliffhanger ending. Borrowing the original working title of Federico Fellini’s film 8 ½, Maria Grazia Chiuri, designer of Dior since 2016, called it “the Beautiful Confusion”.

She was talking about Rome, with its heady jumble of art, culture, faith and mopeds, and about a collection in which haute couture pieces were mixed with theatrical costumes. But there was also an inescapable allusion to the question of her own future of Dior.