This is a video from the boat tour around Craigleith Island and Bass Rock, booked through the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick. There was a lot of wildlife to see, including the world's largest colony of northern gannets on Bass Rock. The views were also beautiful (the weather helped 😂) and the guide very informative! Hope you enjoy 😀
For Maria Grazia Chiuri, the presentation of the cruise collection is an opportunity to follow the steps of Christian Dior around the world.
Visual journeys that each time invoke new experiences. In 1955, Monsieur Dior presented his work in Perthshire, Scotland, in the ballroom of the Gleneagles Hotel. For the Creative Director of Dior Women’s Collections, this country has become the narrative framework of the Dior cruise 2025 collection – unveiled in the gardens of Drummond Castle – where memories, inspirations and suggestions fuse to generate shapes and embroideries.
The unicorn and the thistle, both symbols of Scotland, provide an unprecedented variation of the Millefleurs motif, and are transposed into heraldic embroidery, recalling the savoir-faire of this exceptional technique, a language in itself, a form of resilience. An emblem of Mary Stuart that can be found in Clare Hunter’s book Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power1.
A map of Scotland adorns some of the models in this cruise line, sketching a cartography of collaborations and cultural encounters deployed specially for this défilé, such as the tribute to tartan: “It’s probably the only fancy fabric that resists fashions,” Christian Dior wrote in The Little Dictionary of Fashion2. Blending various colors and the cut of a kilt, this historic cloth, intrinsically characteristic of the region, continues to cross fashions past and present, from romanticism to punk.
Photographs from the spring-summer 1955 presentation are transformed into prints or employed as appliques on the edges of kilts or pea coats, in a kind of cinematic montage. They constitute objects of memory punctuating this Dior cruise 2025 collection.
The looks merge contrasting elements, including the diverging textures of velvet and lace dressing the contemporary equestrian. Certain silhouettes feature exaggeratedly wide sleeves which, on white shirts, appear under little dresses with gathered skirts and bustiers resplendent with embroidery. The latter can be found on several dark, iridescent pieces that are sometimes adorned with pearls. Lace collars, in their turn, brighten up the black.
Also used in very light materials, tartan is the common thread running through this veritable celebration of the kilt, whether made directly in Scotland or reinterpreted. Not to forget dresses conceived in diverse lengths, as well as coats and capes with large hoods. Rain boots come and go. Small jackets adopt the gray of menswear fabrics, and the iconic Bar jacket sports black velvet Brandenburg buttons.
This same velvet magnifies an evening gown, the fitted bust of which emphasizes the oversized skirt. Feathery woven fishnet metamorphoses into long, lightweight dresses, embracing the mauve hue of nostalgia.
This inventive choreography is made up of interconnected affinities. Like an testimony revisiting stories of earlier times, it offers a journey where the different stages become the subjects of creativity.
1 Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, Clare Hunter, Sceptre, 2022.
2 The Little Dictionary of Fashion, Christian Dior, Cassell & Company Ltd, London, 1954, translated into French in 2007 as an appendix to the catalogue Dior 60 Years of Style.
Odes To Mary Stuart
Inspired by Scottish craft traditions and the iconic figure of Mary Stuart, the silhouettes reinvent the look of the visionary sovereign, from romance to punk, tartan to corset-armor, dresses with accentuated shoulders to tweed sets and prodigious couture embroidery, echoing that of Holyrood Palace*. Between celebration and transgression(s), the iconic Argyle motif is unveiled in a fine open-work version; emblematic Fair Isle lace is modernized with a subtle interplay of material and transparency; crinolines are boldly revisited, punctuated by elements borrowed from counter-cultures. All these reinterpreted textile symbols marvelously revive the founding ties between France and Scotland.
* Primary residence of the kings and queens of Scotland
Punk Attitude
Poetic and all-conquering, the silhouettes designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Dior cruise 2025 show are enhanced by accessories that convey a powerful, impetuous femininity. Worn with high socks, leather riding boots are adorned with zips and multiple straps, promising a confident, determined gait. Inspired by traditional sporran, kilts are worn with saddlebags emblazoned with the initials “CD”. A tribute to the customs that make Scotland so rich, the bags' shoulder straps are decorated with heraldic symbols that combine the House's emblems with those of this fascinating country. Wonderful finishing touches include necklaces with delicate black ribbons and pendants featuring marine motifs, a poetic evocation of the seas that shape the beauty of coastal landscapes.
Tantallon Castle is a ruined mid-14th-century fortress, located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland. It sits atop a promontory opposite the Bass Rock, looking out onto the Firth of Forth. The last medieval curtain wall castle to be constructed in Scotland, Tantallon comprises a single wall blocking off the headland, with the other three sides naturally protected by sea cliffs.
Tantallon was built in the mid 14th century by William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas. It was passed to his illegitimate son, George Douglas, later created Earl of Angus, and despite several sieges, it remained the property of his descendants for much of its history. It was besieged by King James IV in 1491, and again by his successor James V in 1527, when extensive damage was done. Tantallon saw action in the First Bishops' War in 1639, and again during Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Scotland in 1651, when it was once more severely damaged. It was sold by the Marquis of Douglas in 1699 to Hew Dalrymple, Lord North Berwick and the ruin is today in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
