Hey Upper East Siders, It’s Dior SS24

 

TUESDAY SEP. 26, 2023 6:50 PM PARIS.

On Tuesday evening, Maria Grazia Chiuri transformed the Tuileries Garden into a feminist panorama by enlisting the Italian artist Elena Bellantoni to create a video installation for the Dior SS24 show. After taking in the collection, which he described as “Human League meets Upper East Side,” Mel Ottenberg and our senior editor Taylore Scarabelli caught up at Le Progrès over diet cokes to make sense of it all.

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TAYLORE SCARABELLI: The first thing I want to say is, I am not a piece of meat [One of the slogans displayed during the show], but I felt like one when I was running through the crowd trying to get to the show.

MEL OTTENBERG: Oh my god.

SCARABELLI: I was so late, and it was so insane out there. And at one point, I couldn’t even figure out where the door was because of all the fans outside. There were a lot of celebrities there. I don’t know exactly which ones because the kids would not tell me. But I saw Guram, my new crush.

OTTENBERG: I saw Guram. Guram is everywhere. He is omnipresent.

SCARABELLI: I love his grills.

OTTENBERG: I love his Instagram. I saw some really good clothes. I’m into the really skinny, social x-ray, Upper East Side vibes. There’s a really cool Nan Kempner vibe.

SCARABELLI: She went a little sexy for the girls. But she still had the modest looks for the international clientele.

OTTENBERG: Right, right, right. It’s for a lot of different women and she’s very consistent with how she does her thing. And the Tuileries are great. I love going there. I also love lurex. I want lurex come back. Lurex is that glittery, gold stuff that I sent you, that two-piece look.

SCARABELLI: I read in the notes that it was a chainmail-inspired look. A lot of the garments were very witchy and a little bit medieval, but make it modern.

OTTENBERG: It was very Gary Newman. Do you know who Gary Newman is? Gary Newman sang “Cars.”

SCARABELLI: Yes. Also, the kitten heel gladiator was so hot.

OTTENBERG: It’s a major gladiator, some with pearls, some without.

SCARABELLI: I love that.

OTTENBERG: The clothes were late 70s New Wave into early 80s Human League meets Upper East Side. I don’t know what you call that in France.

SCARABELLI: [Laughs] They were perfect clothes for this week in New York, where it’s still kind of balmy, but it’s raining. The trench coat was gorgeous.

OTTENBERG: The snakeskin trench coat was really, really, really good. I don’t use the C-word anymore because I’m an adult professional, but it was very the C-word.

SCARABELLI: Oh, wow. This is big news.

OTTENBERG: My mom was right, always telling me not to use it, but it’s the right word for the trench coat.

SCARABELLI: Speaking of the C-word, and feminism, the accompanying video art by Ella Bellantoni was crazy. I was getting a little bit distracted. 

OTTENBERG: I was like, “Who’s the girl?” Then you’re like, “Wait, is that Katie Holmes?”

SCARABELLI: That was the punk element of it, too. She’s storming. She doesn’t give a fuck. She’s going to go naked on the streets.

OTTENBERG: She’s storming the Tuileries. Bye!