Cultural Exchange

Meet Circe Henestrosa, the Singapore-based fashion academic and curator whose homage to her Mexican roots sparked a collaboration with Dior that culminated in a stunning 2024 Cruise collection.

- Debby Kwong

Few fashion curators can say that their work has served as a source of inspiration for one of the biggest fashion houses in the world. When Dior's creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri attended the exhibition, Frida Kahlo: Beyond Appearances at the Fashion Museum Palais Galliera in Paris in 2022, she was so enamoured with what she saw that she rang its curator up.

She loved the show, and was truly inspired and moved by it. She called me to collaborate with her on her Dior Cruise Collection 2024, and asked me to help her work with Mexican artisans, says Circe Henestrosa, head of the School of Fashion at Lasalle College of the Arts, and University of the Arts Singapore It wasn't the only time her work had caught Maria's eye. The designer first encountered Circe's work through an exhibition celebrating Frida Kahlo at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in 2018.

The showcase explored how the Mexican artist's experiences with disability, ethnicity and her queer identity had informed her art, life and personal style Fast forward to 2024, and Dior's latest Cruise collection pays tribute to Frida Kahlo, who favoured a three-piece suit as a symbol of intellectual independence. There were also references to the way Tehuana women wore full skirts with a tunic known as the huipil.

A butterfly-shaped black leather corset, elegantly paired with a billowy white shirt and pleated skirt, pays homage to the corsets Kahlo endured due to a bus accident that fractured her spine in three places. The toile de Jouy fabric features a myriad of butterflies amid depictions of Mexican flora and fauna, including parrots, monkeys and strelitzias, reminiscent of the elements often found in Kahlo's paintings.

A CUSTODIAN OF MEXICAN HERITAGE