Riders On The Storm

She called it the Diorodeo. In her Cruise 2019 collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri paid tribute to the strength and showmanship of Mexican women riders, taking her feminist vision of fashion a step ahead.

- Komal Sharma

EARLIER THIS MAY, A FLEET OF LIMOUSINES DROVE GUESTS OUT OF PARIS and into the French countryside. An hour later, we arrived at the Great Stables of the Domaine de Chantilly, an 18th century equestrian palace that was magnificent, especially under an overcast sky. This was the evening Christian Dior launched its Cruise 2019 collection.

The guests settled into their seats at the open-air arena with a sandy courtyard in the middle, a runway along its periphery, and nothing overhead except a canopy of fluttering ribbons. That’s when it came pouring down. Not a drizzle, but a stormy, relentless rain.

And as if it was all choreographed, at that very moment, a team of eight Mexican escaramuzas (women riders) rode into the arena on horses, dressed in black-andwhite embroidered dresses and hats, all custom-made by Dior.

Fashion never felt so exhilarating. The crowd cheered, the escaramuzas finished their routine, and the models began to walk in—still under a pouring sky.