The Dior Autumn-Winter 2021-2022 Haute Couture collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri represents an ode to the fabric that is the foundation of every look, bringing as much visual impact to the viewer as tactile appreciation for the wearer. The return to physical presentations also finds an echo in the acknowledgment of the communal nature of sewing around the world. One expression of this here comes in the form of patchwork, while innovative weaves lie at the core of daywear, some involving significant manual manipulation, others entirely handwoven. Conceived by the artist Éva Jospin as a work titled 'Chambre de Soie', the show décor was embroidered by the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai, India, set up to empower women through education and preserve heritage skills. Unusually, the collection itself, however, features far less of the embellishment that would be typical, apart from a focus on featherwork. Instead the fabrics become their own form of adornment through complex interactions of pleating, draping, tucking and smocking that alternate between evocations of the organic and the mechanical. The architecture of the clothes is re-thought, too, as suiting is redrawn by sinuous pattern pieces and the component layers of coats differentiated by changes of color.