For Cruise 2026, Dior staged a theatrical show that marked its first full-scale exhibition in Rome and the last of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s nine-year tenure.
Couture, art, and the spectacle of Roman theater define the “bella confusione”—or “beautiful confusion”—that Maria Grazia Chiuri fashioned from Dior’s Cruise 2026 collection. For the show held on May 27, Chiuri brought Dior to her hometown in Rome, which is home to several historical and fashion extravaganzas, as well as the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Villa Albani Torlonia, an architectural and historical masterpiece built in the 18th century, served as the show’s cinematic setting. It is usually closed to the public but it opened for Chiuri’s presentation, which marked Dior’s first full-scale exhibition in Rome and the last in the designer’s nine-year tenure.
For the creative director, it was not just a return to a place, but to a moment in time and imagination—an “autobiographical synthesis”—as Dior describes it in the show’s notes. Everything speaks the drama and grandeur of Roman theater, from its choice of cinematic setting to how Dior describes it as “bella confusione,” which is the title screenwriter Ennio Flaiano suggested to Federico Fellini for his 1963 film 8 ½ .
Villa Albani, owned by the Torlonia family, is a symbol of opulent aristocratic residences in Italy, while Fellini’s 8 ½ provides a glimpse into the Italian director and screenwriter’s expertise in blending fantasy and baroque images with realistic elements.
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This creative fusion of history and fantasy, the living and the spectral, is likewise reflected in Dior’s Cruise 2026 collection—titled “Bal de l’Imagination”—featuring Chiuri’s haute couture and ready-to-wear creations.
At the center of the new capsule is Anna Laetitia Pecci, better known as Mimi Pecci Blunt, a 20th-century aristocrat and arts patron. She is the founder of the historic Teatro della Cometa, which Chiuri, along with her daughter, Rachele Regini, acquired in 2020 and has been lovingly restoring over the last five years.
Mimi is known for hosting lavish masked balls, particularly the all-white “Bal Blanc.” For Cruise 2026, Chiuri transformed the Villa into a dreamlike spectacle, with female guests dazzling in their all-white ensembles as men captivate in all black.
The collection tells another story seemingly taken straight out of a Roman empress’ armoire. It was told through diaphanous lace gowns, column dresses, mini dresses, and long, delicate skirts that swayed as the models sashayed down the Villa’s garden.
The silhouettes slipped between mediums and centuries of dress codes. Certain dresses are styled like chasubles while full gowns in lace and velvet, reminiscent of historical costumes, were given a contemporary and masculine twist with their matching military-style coats, trench capes, and motorcycle jackets.
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Dior Cruise 2026’s palette is predominantly white, running through countless materials from gossamer silks to dense brocades that altogether elevate the dreamy atmosphere of the show. The sequence of whites is interrupted by black and velvet dresses that pay homage to the Fontana sisters, who dressed Hollywood golden age actress Anita Ekberg in the film La Dolce Vita.
For those who streamed last Tuesday’s show online, Dior concluded the exhibition with a short film by Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone. In the director’s third collaboration with Chiuri, models roamed the grounds of the Villa dressed in gowns the designer crafted with Tirelli.
According to WWD, Chiuri commissioned the Rome-based costume house to reproduce some of the maison’s most famous creations in films, including Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard and Death in Venice to Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence.
“We wanted not only to experiment, but also with this lightness, to show that the construction behind a film costume is very close to haute couture,” she told the outlet. “Cinema has done a lot to promote the image of Rome. For me, it was important not only to show my personal Rome, but also Rome as it has appeared in the movies.”
The Dior Cruise 2026 show, as Chiuri envisioned it, turned out to be dramatic, romantic, and rich in fashion heritage. It’s a memorable ending to her nine-year tenure at the maison, and one that suggests that the story isn’t really over for the famed designer.
Banner photos by Francesco Ormando/WWD
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