Tattoos are rarely seen on the runway, but at Dior’s couture show in Paris this week every model was adorned with them.
Designer Maria Grazia Chiuri and lead makeup artist Peter Philips used the beauty look and temporary tattoos to make a statement about freedom and love.
The entire show was inspired by Surrealism – an art and cultural movement from the 1920s that championed the individual; and expressed imagination and dreaming free from conscious, rational control. The makeup look created by Dior makeup’s creative image director, Peter Phillips, drew from Surrealist works from great artists.
The most notable part of the look were the temporary tattoos adorning models’ necks, fingers, collarbones and ears. Each phrase was a handpicked André Breton – the founder of Surrealism – quote, reading words and phrases like: liberté (liberty/freedom), l’amour fou (crazy love), and l’imaginaire, c’est ce qui tend à devenir réel (imagination, it’s what tends to be real).
While political statements on the runway don’t always translate, Dior’s message of l’amour est toujours devant yous (Love is always before you) definitely did.
