LONDON — The Dior Harrods summer moment has arrived, and this year there’s a celebratory twist.
Dior is opening its annual summer pop-up on Wednesday and marking the Knightsbridge store’s 175th anniversary with 175 numbered, limited-edition bags.
They include Miss Dior styles in lime and orange and the Dior Book Tote in orange with a Miss Dior graffiti print. The colorways are worldwide exclusives.
As reported, Dior is swinging into Harrods with a collection inspired by ’60s fashion, and women’s sartorial liberation, through the eyes of Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections.
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The pop-up showcases the fall 2024 collection, including shoes, leather goods, sunglasses, textile accessories and jewelry inspired by Dior’s first ready-to-wear line Miss Dior, designed by Marc Bohan in 1967.
The Dior takeover, which runs until Aug. 25, is a summer tradition and part of a long-standing relationship between the French brand and the Knightsbridge store. Christian Dior and Harrods began working together in 1953, and the brand has staged myriad events and installations at the store over the past seven decades.
The pop-ups always land at a time when London is filled with big-spending tourists from the U.S. and the Middle East.
The windows feature variations of the Miss Dior bag in a variety of colors — including pink, purple and lime — while the walls are adorned with sculptures featuring the season’s latest bags, including the Lady Dior style, in a similar rainbow of citrus-y brights.
The Miss Dior logo features as a repeating pattern or as bold graffiti on a series of pieces including trenchcoats, jackets and skirts. The brand’s distinctive Book Tote and Tribales earrings, scarves, belts and Dway mules also showcase the logo.
For fall 2024 Chiuri used big, slogan-style lettering inspired by the 1968 student protests for her “manifesto” trenchcoats and skirts, and was inspired by Bohan’s subversion of traditional silk scarves, once a badge of bourgeois style.
Ahead of the fall show, Chiuri told WWD that Bohan “understood that women at the time were in a moment where they wanted to change their style of life. His dialogue was with the daughters of the clients at Dior.”
Dior isn’t the only brand marking Harrods’ 175 years in business.
The store’s anniversary theme is “Celebrating 175 Years of Exceptional.” Highlights include the launch of a fragrance by Maison Francis Kurkdjian called Reflets de Ambre, a tribute to the new, glowing light installation on Harrods’ Brompton Road facade.
Every evening at 8 p.m. there is a light show on the facade, which has been fitted with a total of 3,890 LED bulbs. As reported, the lights are more colorful, versatile and energy-efficient than the previous ones.
Harrods has also created a special anniversary collection of bears, and tapped a few luxury brands and designers, including Burberry, Valentino and Charlotte Tilbury, to put their signature spin on the cuddly toy.
Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, said the aim of the anniversary festivities is “celebrate all that is wonderful and unique about the Harrods brand — our place in British culture and history, brand partnerships and relationships with our customers, while also looking firmly forward.”
In February, Burberry was the first brand to take over the store with its new Knight Blue signature color.
It transformed Harrods into a luxe campground filled with the brand’s latest check patterns and color palette, made uniforms for the Harrods doormen and created dedicated pop-up shops, including a camping corner that offered British hiking accessories.
Later this year, to coincide with its own centenary, Loro Piana will stage a takeover of Harrods for the holiday season, running from Nov. 7 to Jan. 2.
The Italian luxury brand will also open two new permanent stores at the storied retailer, one for the Kids collection and the other to Loro Piana Interiors. For the duration of the takeover there will also be two pop-ups dedicated to the brand’s heritage and craftsmanship.