In Egypt, Dior Men Holds Fashion Shows Throughout the Ages

A lone figure emerges from the dunes of Giza, the dark outlines of the pyramids imprinted behind them in the Egyptian night. As he traversed the landscape, every ancient building lit up: first three smaller ones, and then the larger pharaoh’s tomb exploded into LED lights. A procession of luminaries followed, a curving line to the enthralled crowd of luminaries from the world of fashion to the drumbeats of techno music.

It’s Hosted by the Stars, Dior’s presentation of the Fall Mens 2023 collection in December. It was a spectacle by design: The last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, the Pyramid of Khufu, floats on heavily futurism-inspired lines. The models, swathed in flowing gray with the fiery bursts of the setting sun, seemed to have been transported from a sand dunes-esque planets. Celestial mantles, reflective armor, and what appear to be oxygen masks enhance the sci-fi surrealism. Stars from various humans also stare from the encounter: Robert Pattinson, Cha Eun-woo, Daniel Kaluuya, the ageless Naomi Campbell. This visual link between the past, present and future is certainly the intention of Kim Jones, creative director of Dior Men.

My interest in ancient Egypt is about the stars and the sky. His fascination with the ancient world and its parallels to what we see today; what we inherited from them and what we still learn from the past, says Jones. In both the collection and the show, there’s this idea of ​​being guided by the stars and what that can be in many ways. It’s about how the past shapes the future or ideas about the future from the past.

And 2022 is a historic year for the House of Dior, which marks its 75th anniversary. The label itself has a mystical underpinning, which occurred when Christian Dior, an avid astrologist, stumbled upon his lucky star, an object on Pariss Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor. He took the stumble as a sign for launching the haute couture house, which redirected the fashion world to Paris after World War II and is now one of the shining jewels in the LVMH diadem.

This pedigree is in print in the Fall Mens collection. A tweed demi-kilt traces its ancestry to a 50s dress dubbed the Bonne Fortune, a stark example of how traditional lines between the genders in fashion are blurring. But instead of a piece that looks like fashion, the ancient Egyptian backdrop reminds us that in the great history of human events, men also wore dresses.

In essence, a visit to the nearby Egyptian Museum, where King Tutankhamun’s gold accessories shine, as well as the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which shows kohl eye makeup kits worn by both men and women, further underscores that it is the division of modern clothing between the sexes that is an aberration. . Not wanting to be outdone by the pharaohs, Dior’s male models were treated to their own radiant makeup routine from brand Capture Totale’s skincare line, reports Dior Makeups creative and image director Peter Philips. Their brows were trimmed with Diorshow On Set Brow gel, and in some cases, bleached.

Beyond the blurring of gender, the earliest depictions of same-sex love can also be traced to ancient Egypt. In particular, two hieroglyphic illustrations of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, the royal manicurist of the 25th century BC, show the couple embracing each other and touching noses, an act similar to a romantic kiss. (Viewers Brooch will remember this couple, as Billy Eichner’s character Bobby, founder of the museum of LGBTQ+ history, tells them as a prime example of the immortality of queer love.)

Of course, being queer in Egypt today is much more complicated. LGBTQ+ Egyptians face social stigma and legal threats from morality laws, which can result in deportation or imprisonment. This made Diors’ staging in Giza a point of contention among some LGBTQ+ critics. Is it tone-deaf for a strange (very) inclusive company to showcase a gender-defying collection there? Covert protests? Either way, Egypt must reckon with the cultural impact of global tourism and gatherings such as the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Cairo International Film Festival, both held just before Dior’s showing.

Humans all have to reckon with the past, which as Kim noted shapes the future. The pyramid, the love of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, stumbles on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor: Here we are today, humans contemplating eternity, guided by their stars.

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