On a warm summer morning, Dior’s Holt Renfrew Vancouver shop-in-shop is lined with red, white, and black accessories and ready-to-wear pieces from the Dior Amour capsule collection. Launched in August 2018, this exclusive offering is only found in two locations in Canada: Holt Renfrew stores in downtown Vancouver and Toronto’s Yorkdale mall. The collection takes its inspiration from the Chinese festival Qixi or Qiqiao, a celebration of forbidden love between a commoner and goddess; dating back over 2,000 years, it takes place annually on August 17.
Dior Amour includes a series of mini Lady Dior handbags, such as a cream purse with a big red heart sewn over watercolours and words en Francais like passion and aventure; another handbag, black with impressive beading details of oranges, pinks, blues, and greens, has a signature beaded red heart overtop. Each mini Lady Dior is also decorated with classic and feminine charms. Dior Amour, then, honours Canada’s Chinese population, but also highlights one of the brand’s iconic codes. After all, Christian Dior himself was known for carrying a set of good-luck charms around with him: a four-leaf clover, a gold coin, a star, a piece of wood, and a flower representative of his hometown of Granville, France.
The capsule also includes a series of scarves, decorated with multi-coloured hearts to be worn around the neck or the head, along with shoes, sunglasses, and small leather goods. There are even ruby-red intimates, such as briefs and bralettes, perhaps to be worn under one of Dior’s most popular ready-to-wear items from the collection: a sheer layered Red Dotted Swiss Skirt with a removable lining underneath.
Dior himself, who is largely credited with creating the shape and wear of the post-war era of women’s fashion, lives on through a legacy of embracing all cultures through style. With reds, pinks, and delicate charms, Dior Amour is an ode to Canada as a top Dior market, and a celebration of the brand’s singular namesake.
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