Dior triumphs melding women’s past and future, while Saint Laurent puts on study in power dressing

By THOMAS ADAMSON
AP Fashion Writer

PARIS (AP) — Amid the electric ambiance of strobe lights and an usually sweltering Parisian fall, Dior presented its spring/summer 2024 womenswear collection. The show, set in the Tuileries gardens, witnessed a dazzling circus of stars. With Hollywood’s recent writers’ strike still on, insiders mused if Paris Fashion Week would be the season’s celebrity magnet – and the presence of many A-listers seemed to echo that sentiment. But the real star this season was the collection itself. Never one to shy away from a statement on feminism, the Italian couturier Maria Grazia Chiuri crafted an unusually subtle collection in predominantly black and white that fused echoes of the medieval and contemporary.