On one hand, there’s the 1953 Albert Decaris etching that turned up in the Dior archives, a map of the five continents that retraces the House’s expansion around the world. On the other, there’s the couturier’s assertion in his autobiography, Dior by Dior: “A complete collection should address all types of women in all countries.” Both inspirations guided Maria Grazia Chiuri, the Artistic Director of women’s collections, in creating the Autumn-Winter 2017-2018 Haute Couture collection that celebrates the House’s 70th anniversary.

For Maria Grazia Chiuri, the atlas symbolizes a desire for faraway lands, the need to travel to discover the world and oneself, to feel emotion, grow and evolve. It evokes her own journey from Rome to Paris and her exploration of the Dior heritage. As restless as the first female explorers who overcame geographical and psychological frontiers, she is drawn to the heroine’s flair for borrowing elements from the masculine wardrobe and mixing them with ethnic pieces.

Thanks to the designer’s sensitivity and new technologies, men’s wear fabrics are transformed into shimmering surfaces and chiaroscuro on jackets, coats, blouses and jumpsuits that recall aviator jackets and open into pleated culotte skirts.

Meanwhile, the masculine fedora by Stephen Jones, the milliner who this year celebrates his 20 th anniversary as Dior’s hat designer, nods to explorers such as Freya Stark. The path taken in this homecoming becomes, for Maria Grazia Chiuri, a topography of emotions: colors, flowers and embroidered tarot cards themselves become atlases on capes and evening gowns in silk and tulle, in gray powdered with pink or nocturnal shades of velvet. This fairyland, an imaginary cartography that invents and challenges one’s point of view, recalls the monumental maps and globes of grand interiors: they relay the power of feminine literary roamings, sprinkled with explorations of culture and style. The artist Pietro Ruffo, with whom Maria Grazia Chiuri shares a creative bond, designed the decor, which retraces the Earth and the celestial sphere with poetic grace.

To widen their audience and to keep up with the industry’s shift, we see more of ready-to-wear during this year’s Haute Couture shows at Paris. Following day one was Schiaparelli, Iris Van Harpen, Ralph & Russo to Giambattista Valli amongst Christian Dior.

Elsa Schiaparelli showcased 36-gown collection with some stylish contemporary twists. Designer Bertrand produced a diaphanous collection of couture gowns with hints of the 1930s draping styles and high necks.

Ralph & Russo is being a red-carpet favourite of many with Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor patronising it at Cannes and now as the show stopper for Tamara Ralph’s Haute couture show at Paris.

Iris Van Harpen’s water themed couture show, revisited the fusion of organic forms with technology and mechanics. White gowns, constructed of tendrils or fibers, provoked myriad interpretations — evoking sound waves, the rippling sea or the gills of a fish.While the silhouettes were varied, and infused with large Asian-style sleeves and exaggerated proportions.

Amongst a select panel of established fashion designers, Manish Tripathi is mandated by the ministry of textiles to presenthis stylized looks in the fashion show during Textile India 2017.

Manish Tripathishowcasedhis collection designed in Maheshwari fabric which has a unique concoction of Cotton and silk. For the designs and colour palette he has taken inspiration from the picturesque forts and palaces of queen Ahilya of Maheshwar, and the flora from tropical forests of Madhya Pradesh. To add to the details in the garments, mukaish, hand and machine embroidery, block prints, and few other intricate techniques have been used.