Inspired by the work of Frida Khalo, several pieces from the haute couture house alluded to violence against women. A move that shocked many Mexican feminists.
On May 21, Dior presented its new collection in Mexico City, inspired by the work of Frida Khalo, to pay homage to women and also to Mexican textile craftsmanship. The parade took place in a historic building in the city center: the College of San Ildefonso, the art school where the painter Frida Kahlo met her mentor, Diego Rivera, and where her artistic vocation flourished. .
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Various collaborations have been forged between the fashion house and Mexican artists, including craftswomen involved in the making of certain traditional models.
But it is the last sequence of the parade, a poetic allusion to feminicides, which divides. White dresses, designed by the artist Elina Chauvet, on which stood out red embroidery, with phrases such as “Live My Life” or sexist slurs. Red symbolizing, of course, the blood of murdered women.
“A disconnect from reality”
The staging does not pass with Mexican feminists, who denounce a “glamorization” and an “aestheticization” of the drama of feminicides. They also point to an advertising strategy without real commitment from one of the major global luxury brands that appropriates the fight of Mexican women against violence. Journalist Mariana Limón reports the unease that has run through feminist circles: “The parade does not really address the issue of feminicides, it is reduced to pretty dresses, and this causes a disconnection from reality, which makes this vision painful, to see feminicides put on display, as if it were of a new fashion trend.”
But isn’t it useful that a brand as prestigious as Dior draws attention to the horror of feminicides? Some Mexican feminists took the opposite view of the criticisms, considering that this initiative could not be totally disqualified simply because it was about fashion and luxury.
Because feminicides are part of the daily life of Mexican women. Every day, the media and networks publish the photos and names of new victims. One of the latest was called Guadalupe, a 30-year-old woman: her husband doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. One case among many others that follow one another in general indifference: every day in Mexico, between ten and eleven women on average lose their lives in violent circumstances, while the government is deaf to these tragedies.