Dior Loves Tarot Cards, and You Should Too

In the very first look of Dior’s Haute Couture SS 2021 collection video, a female model dressed in a gorgeous jacquard cape and gown set with luxurious gold detailing reaches out her hand toward you, holding a giant iron key. She is seated on a vintage-looking chair and wears a beautiful three-tiered crown that perfectly complements her dramatic updo. The presentation is completed with a vertical backdrop, which has a mesmerizing pattern that draws you in further.

She is the High Priestess, and she invites you into the Castle of Tarot.

If you’ve read my previous article on the visual history of tarot cards, you’d realize that this gorgeous golden robe dress is reminiscent of the oldest surviving deck of tarot cards — the Visconti-Sforza deck of the late 14th century.

Maria Grazia is drawing from her Italian roots and Dior’s French-Italian heritage for this showstopper piece, and I always appreciate when designers reinvent classic silhouettes.

I don’t think this dress is as gorgeous and well-executed compared to other pieces in the collection, but I like this particular scene of Judgement sitting in the middle of the room, waiting for the protagonist to make her deicision.

I love the Fool. She walks into Judgement’s territory and transforms the solemn atmosphere into something whimsical and quirky. The top is reminiscent of Maria Grazia’s previous collection inspired by cave paintings, while the bottom is fun and colorful.

This is one of my favorites scenes. The dark gold of the dress under the blue lighting appears mysterious and sophisticated, as if actually hiding secrets to the future.

Although it is impossible to see the dress in this lighting, I love the billowing effect of the sleeves. As the photoshoot indicates, the shimmery fabric and the intricate draping are better viewed when the model is in action.

I actually despise the horns and the gaudy set of wings for the Devil. It is not smart, not artfully done, and not thought-provoking.

This crescent-shaped hair is my FAVORITE detail. The model’s blonde hair is illuminated by the overhead light in the perfect amount, creating an elegant effect that resembles the actual moon in the night sky. On the other hand, the crystal headband in the photoshoot is generic and not very creative.

This mask is incredible! I can’t tell what it is made of, but its metallic surface reflects the light in such an interesting way, and it’s so intricately constructed to imitate the shape of the skull. This is probably the most elegant skull mask I’ve seen, and it is a beautiful detail that completes to the concept.

My first impression of Death, or the grim reaper, would be a long black cloak. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised by this dress, which in a gorgeous, shimmery gray color. I love the puff sleeves and how the fabric is gathered below the high waistline, but I do not like the weird shape of the chest area.

Overall, I find the visuals and storyline rather interesting. It is a new way of showcasing the collection that captures our curiosity and furthers our understanding of the story behind these beautiful, elaborate pieces. I also enjoy the contrast between the video and the photoshoot, which enables the audience to have a better sense of how the pieces look in different lightings.

Both Monsieur Dior and Maria Grazia Chiuri are inspired by tarot cards, and it is something that perfectly aligns with the marriage of French and Italian aesthetics that is integral to the history of the brand. In addition to the SS 2021 collection drawing inspiration from the Visconti-Sforza deck, the AW 2018 collection also featured a luxurious tarot coat that showcases craftsmanship of the highest level. If you need a quick crash course on the visual history of tarot cards, check out my article.

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cover image via

Quarantine, Memphis-Style

We all have days when we need some fun, colorful inspiration to keep us looking on the sunny side of life. My suggestion? Memphis-style design.

If you don’t know what this means, you’re not alone. I found this tea pot, listed as “Memphis Style Tea Pot,” on Other Times Vintage’s website, and I had no idea what “Memphis style” was. So, vintage enthusiast and curious human that I am, I went on a deep internet dive. And, reader, I fell in love.

Memphis style originated in the 1980s with Ettore Sottsass’s Memphis Group. Active for just seven years, this Italian design and architecture collective was instrumental in the early days of postmodernism, and their influence still resonates in art, interior design, and even fashion—Dior’s Fall 2011 collection was deeply inspired by their style.

Dior fall 2011 images via

If the bright colors and abstract patterns make you wince, if the acrylic and ceramic makes you want to dig yourself a hole to hide in, if the asymmetry makes you throw up your hands and turn away, you are definitely not alone. The group’s designs were widely criticized at the time, especially coming as they did on the heels of the midcentury’s streamlined silhouettes, and the style is still incredibly polarizing. Basically, if you don’t like it, you hate it, but if you like it, you love it.

The style speaks to rebellion, to a fight against “good taste” and tradition, David Bowie was a fan, and, honestly, it just makes me happy. We all need a little more color in our lives. Case in point, I just bought this rug for my room. Loud colors? Yes. Very patterned? Yes. Incredibly smile-inducing? Very much yes.

I’ll stop fangirling at you now and leave you with a collection of pieces I love to help with your procrastination. (Fair warning: don’t get too attached—most of them are wildly expensive) Have fun!

Featured image via

Designer Profile 2023: Meghane Saidenberg

In light of the upcoming MODA student fashion show, I interviewed designer and friend Meghane Saidenberg to uncover a bit of the process and inspiration behind her work. Meghane is a second year at the college studying data science, hopefully minoring in computational neuroscience and/or statistics. She’s involved with research on campus surrounding data science. This is her first time designing for MODA.

Meghane’s moodboard.

If you were presenting your line to an audience what would you say? What are your inspirations and motivations? What does the line mean to you?

I view the pieces that I will be presenting at MODA as part of a larger collection; this is a capsule collection focusing on different permutations of light. For example, I have a dress that lights up in dark ambient environments and I’m combining my different technical skill sets in sewing and coding. I had to learn a lot about physical hardware that I’m not used to doing in order to achieve that. For that, I took inspiration from the NASA James Webb images that were released. I have another dress inspired by a mirrorball. Also, I made two pieces inspired by impressionism and how the artist’s perspective became the most important thing when creating a piece of art. But eventually it went down the train of being inspired by ink blot tests and my love for exploring street art in how to make something really cool out of a different structure. My last outfit is inspired by lighting and the event of being struck by lightning. It leaves a scar that appears to have electrified your veins and brought them to the surface. With this, I wanted to explore light as something traumatic. A different angle to light.

How did you start designing? Is this your first time creating a line of works?

This is my first time actually sitting down and creating a physical collection. But, I’ve loved fashion design since I can remember. In middle school, I used to carry around a sketchbook that had a collection of dotted outlines of women to sketch designs. I would just sit down and sketch during my break times; I got really into fashion illustrations and took a lot of time learning how to render fabrics with pen onto the paper properly. I also participated in school fashion shows for charity. Those were such surreal experiences to be able to see your work: all the audience sees is the finished product but you know the amount of work that gets put into it. But designing for MODA is the first time where multiple of my designs are walking down the runway.

How did material influence your final pieces?

I am very driven by exploring textiles and trying to create textiles. In one of the pieces I took muslin (lightweight cotton cloth in a plain weave) and tried to manipulate the textile by applying layers of paint and spray paint. For the James Webb dress, I had one of the images printed on fabric in order to make the skirt stay true to my inspiration, but also provide a base in order to layer on top of the circuitry with the lights in order to like to have that interplay there. I see myself gravitating towards fashion technology, which is a subset of fashion design that is really focused on textiles and materials. When you're designing you know, even the lightning dress, I'm taking different materials and manipulating them such that it creates the shape that I want it to. I think that my materials have definitely played a rather central role in my design process. Yeah, very central.

What drew you to fashion technology?

Meghane working on her circuited dress.

I love fashion design, but I'm also a data and computer scientist. And it's really important to me that I don't view them as two different parts of my brain, but something that's very interlinked. I think that both of them are very creative endeavors. This love I have of data and computer science extends to technology generally. I try to apply this scientific, technical background to design, because I think that fashion design is ultimately something that is very scientific. You want to achieve a certain look, a certain effect on the runway; fashion is something that's ultimately your performance and you want it to have a certain effect. So, I want to use all the tools at my disposal in order to achieve that. It's putting together the pieces to make the effect. Which is important.

What was your favorite part in creating the designs?

During the process, two things: one was just kind of like watching my designs evolve as I was making the outfits. There are certain things about what I've made that I didn't plan on initially, that just kind of while I was making the office, I was like, Oh, this is a good idea. I'll change direction. I generally really enjoy pivoting and exploring new ideas as I go along. And so having that freedom to do that has been very, very cool. And two: a smaller moment in the process was with the chainmail when I've been cutting up panels of chainmail. My mom and my sister thought the texture of it was so satisfying. So I left two squares with them before coming back to Chicago. It was a cool detail that everyone could appreciate the texture of the dress. Also, my cat just loves to go wherever I go. And wherever I was working he would just sit on whatever fabric I was working on.

Do you have any tips or suggestions for those looking to begin designing clothes?

Generally, in design don't think about what you think other people would want necessarily, but design things that you yourself would want to wear or see walking down the streets. Design is ultimately just supposed to be fun. Find a degree of enjoyment.

Anything else you would like to add or say about your portion of the show or the clothes themselves?

I'm super excited for the show. I think it's gonna be a really fun experience!