Taking on Paris Fashion Week with Dior SS18 Accessories

While the most exhilarating thing about attending a show during fashion week is discovering a designer’s new creations, the set, music, and showgoers also add to the anticipation. This season, Paris Fashion Week for me kicked off with the Dior show, held at the beautiful Musée Rodin. The entrance to the show space, a large purpose-built rectangular box space located in the gardens at the back meant that showgoers had to enter through the mansion, Hôtel Biron, which houses the museum and nearly 300 works from Rodin’s collection.

Despite the frigid weather, multiple showgoers came dressed in the jacket-and-sheer tulle skirt look that Dior’s artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiuri has made popular. Stripes, heart and dragon motifs in artist, Niki de Saint Phalle’s style were apparent too (the artist was a major influence for Maria Grazia’s Dior SS18 collection), worn with mesh ankle or knee-high boots, with and without socks peeking out from underneath. A particular favourite was the youthful shirt-and-long pinafore dress combo, a nod to Marc Bohan at Dior’s era, as seen on blogger and street style favourite, Aimee Song.

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And the bags! A Lady Dior covered in mosaic mirror embellishment had me do a double take; there were more Lady Dior bags with Niki de Saint Phalle prints, including one with dragon marquetry, the J’Adior flap bag remains a hot commodity in various colours, sizes and finishes, and the roomy Dior Book Tote, which also featured on the AW18 runway in more colourways (plus points for those who already got their hands one).

The Dior Book Tote bag comes in three versions: navy Dior Oblique logo embroidered canvas, multicoloured embroidered canvas, and in a black and white checkered embroidered canvas. I may be biased but I think it’s best with the Dior Oblique logo, a celebration of the house’s classic logo, which I carried. Its ample interior meant I could throw in everything I needed to see me through a day, bar a hot latte—show invites of various sizes, powerbank (a fashion week essential), wallet, bottle of water, scarf, mints, make-up kit for touch-ups, coin purse for spare change and metro tickets, oh, and phone, although that’s largely an extension of my right hand.

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Below, scenes of my Dior Book Tote as I traipsed around various parts of Paris: 

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For SS18, Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by a muse from Marc Bohan’s era in the Sixties-artist, Nike de Saint Phalle, a big supporter of Bohan’s designs for Dior, and a good friend of his, whose works feature bright, exuberant colours that are similarly reflected in Dior’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection. The mirror mosaic pieces pay homage to de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Tuscany, a sculpture garden inspired by Tarot cards that the artist worked on in the late Seventies until her death in 2002.

Here, our top 10 picks from Dior SS18 Accessories:

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For more things Dior, please click here. 

All bags and accessories featured are from Dior SS18 collection, which are now available in stores.