Dior threw fashion as a means of survival, launching Paris Fashion Week in full swing with a lineup of home classics, reworked with technical preferences, associated with the Dainese logo, the famous motorcycle suit of the 1970s: “haute couture” combined with the technology of air-bags, conductive runways and D-Air Lab sensors.
Models took to the runway in the Tuileries Gardens in the French capital, parading through a collection of sleek, feminine looks imbued with references to workwear, pairing see-through dresses with jackets and motorcycle gloves, adding practical pockets to long skirts and throwing airbags over airbags and airbags for shoulders.
The label owned by LVMH was the first big brand to appear at Paris Fashion Week, which runned until March 8 and covers a month of fashion events in New York, London and Milan.
“I think exploring this type of territory helps us understand the true value of fashion,” Maria Grazia Chiuri, designer of women’s clothing for the LVMH-owned label (LVMH.PA), said in an interview.
“Sometimes we think about fashion only with the idea of beautifying our body, not about something where our body lives,” she added.
The designer worked with D-Air Lab, that produces protective equipment with airbags designed for wind turbine repair workers, and protective clothing for Arctic research – associated with the Dainese logo, the famous motorcycle suit of the 1970s.
Lino Dainese founded in Molvena, between February and March of 50 years ago, the brand that has dressed and protected the champions of the motorcycle. And in the days when the agreement for the transition of the Dainese group from the Middle Eastern fund Investcorp to the US fund Carlyle is announced, Lino Dainese continues to spur his startup D-Air Lab, created in 2016. Increasingly sophisticated airbags for the safety of workers, runners, the elderly, children, women. And always new horizons. The latest is haute couture: an agreement with Dior for an autumn winter 2022/23 collection dedicated to D-Air Lab technologies.
If you think of the word “technology”, the first image that appears is composed of robots, computers and virtual reality. The very term “technology”, however, does not refer only to a computer world but indicates all those disciplines that can solve practical problems to improve our lives. While the digital influence has often been the master in the collections and fashion shows of many designers, with more or less satisfactory results, the application of specific technologies and ‘niche’ techniques related to other sectors is much rarer. To fill this void, however, came Maria Grazia Chiuri, who decided to include some garments in collaboration with D-Air Lab in her collection for the Dior maison.
The D-air technology that gives its name to the company D-air Lab, was introduced in 2000 as an evolution of the first back protectors; the airbag for the protection of the human body was a revolution in terms of safety and for this reason it is still widely used in the motorcycle industry. Over time, Dainese first and D-Air Lab later, have continued the research and demonstrated the numerous possible applications of the invented technologies: in 2007 a suit was introduced capable of pressurizing the body of astronauts without limiting their movements; between 2011 and 2012 there were new versions of the D-air for alpine skiing and road use; in 2018 instead ‘Workair’, the first airbag for the protection of workers.
The goal of D-Air Lab is therefore to transfer this technology to contexts of everyday life, creating ‘smart clothes’, but also to make sure that the protection is not perceived by the wearer. The ergonomics of the products is in fact one of the elements that makes D-Air so avant-garde.
In Paris, the introductory look, a suit wired with fluorescent tubes, came out before the lights came on, setting the stage for those who followed, mixing high-tech nylon with cashmere, sheer mesh, sewn-on bar jackets fitted with heating systems, corsets and cycling shorts, fitted with futuristic and gleaming headbands, which rested on tightly woven braids, tucked tightly around the head.
The show attracted a crowd of screaming fans, who rushed across the public gardens to greet K-pop star Jisoo of Blackpin as she walked out of the place.
