Paris (AFP)

In Dior's workshops, little hands, masked, work on a collection like no other: these miniature haute couture dresses will travel in a trunk to customers stranded far from Paris because of the epidemic.

The experience of Covid and Virtual Fashion Week is inspired by the Fashion Theater, this traveling show based on dolls presenting French know-how in fashion during the Second World War, explains to AFP. Maria Grazia Chiuri, Italian designer of the French women's collections.

"Our customers will not be able to come to Paris and this collection will travel to them" all over the world with samples of fabrics and embroidery, she underlines.

The collection is reduced to 36 looks of 40 cm that can contain a trunk in the shape of the building located 30 avenue Montaigne, historic seat of Dior in Paris, with sandals and small veil bibis.

This trunk which travels in a fantastic world of mermaids and nymphs is the main character of the 10 minutes film directed by the Italian Matteo Garrone, author of "Dogman" and "Gomorra", awarded in Cannes, to present this collection.

- "Fairy tale -

The film was shot in Rome in three weeks and the "challenge" was "not to be too cerebral and to touch the heart", said the director during a press conference after the screening of the film which was viewed by over a million people in two hours.

"To see this trunk with little dresses was in itself a fairy tale," he added.

For the first time, there is a wedding dress. If Maria Grazia Chiuri drew it for famous customers like the Italian blogger Chiara Ferragni, none of the parades of this feminist was closed with a bridal look as wanted by the tradition of haute couture.

"It is in guipure with this slightly thick lace. The peculiarity of this lace is that there are no seams, we imbricate the patterns in each other and we reapply small leaves, small flowers on it to that it takes relief and has a 3D effect ", explains to AFP a seamstress who works on this piece and whose name we cannot reveal.

Making a miniature dress is sometimes more complicated than its full size equivalent.

"There is exactly the same work. The additional difficulty comes from the fact that it is very small, very meticulous, the size of our hands is not necessarily adapted, it is necessary to be transplanted from children's hands!", jokes another seamstress working on a pleated silk dress. "In normal times we have folds of 4 mm, here it is on a millimeter".

Despite the reduced production capacities, the seamstresses are delighted with this unique experience after confinement.

"Whenever we can explore new things it's always interesting and the result is charming," says one of them.

- Surreal -

"I was confined to Rome and in these difficult, even dramatic moments, I needed to dream to detach myself from reality and be able to create," says Maria Grazia Chiuri to AFP, saying that she was inspired by women. surrealist artists including Lee Miller, Dora Maar and Jacqueline Lambda.

"The reality of surrealism is the dream and the unconscious (...) and creativity helps to ease tensions, fears," she said.

The reinterpretation of surrealism is subtle and is reflected in the choice of fabrics, pleats that evoke water or a tree as in Dora Maar.

In a "tree" dress, the top is embroidered with pearls and the bottom, flesh color is made of muslin of different colors which are superimposed. "We strip some parts to bring out the desired color and we just bring the effect of fraying patterns," says a designer at the workshop.

"The collection speaks of craftsmanship", underlines Maria Grazia Chiuri, happy to have found a "craftsman" filmmaker who made it possible to "visualize" his imagination.

© 2020 AFP