In Pictures: Dior Cruise Collection 2020

Dior brought its 2020 cruise show to Marrakech on Monday for an evening that celebrated African-inspired craftsmanship in the city’s 16th century El Badi Palace.

Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri collaborated with world-renowned Ivory Coast-based wax specialist Uniwax for the event to reinterpret two of the house's signature motifs, toile de Jouy and tarot cards, using 100 percent African wax - from cottons grown, spun and printed in Africa.

Chiuri also worked with Ivory Coast fashion designer PathéO, who created a specially designed shirt in tribute to Nelson Mandela, while Jamaican-British designer Grace Wales Bonner and American artist Mickalene Thomas each in their own way revisited Dior’s iconic New Look silhouette.

True to her style of being a champion of women empowerment, Chiuri also worked with Sumano, a social project supporting the ancestral savoir-faire of women weavers and pottery makers, to create the show’s decor, such as cushions covered in artisanal fabrics painted in henna and ceramic pottery complimenting the palace’s architecture.

Photos courtesy of the brand