With Thistles and Tartan, Dior Pays Tribute to Scotland in Cruise Collection 

A model presents a creation for Dior during the 2025 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on June 3, 2024 at Drummond Castle, in Crieff, in Scotland. (AFP)
A model presents a creation for Dior during the 2025 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on June 3, 2024 at Drummond Castle, in Crieff, in Scotland. (AFP)
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With Thistles and Tartan, Dior Pays Tribute to Scotland in Cruise Collection 

A model presents a creation for Dior during the 2025 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on June 3, 2024 at Drummond Castle, in Crieff, in Scotland. (AFP)
A model presents a creation for Dior during the 2025 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on June 3, 2024 at Drummond Castle, in Crieff, in Scotland. (AFP)

French fashion house Christian Dior paid homage to Scotland at a catwalk show in a Perthshire castle, with tartan designs and thistle motifs adorning its cruise 2025 collection.

Celebrities, including Hollywood actors Jennifer Lawrence and Anya Taylor-Joy, gathered in the picturesque gardens of Drummond Castle in central Scotland for the show on Monday, where designer Maria Grazia Chiuri peppered kilts for the womenswear line with some punk nods.

Models wore an array of tartan asymmetric dresses, cropped and belted jackets, shorts and corsets, as well as argyle knits, capes and lace or velvet frocks varying in length and volume.

Some of her designs bore fringes, embroidered thistle motifs or the map of Scotland. Others were festooned with pictures of founding designer Christian Dior's 1955 fashion presentation at the nearby Gleneagles Hotel.

Voluminous layered bodice dresses appeared to be a nod to Tudor styles, while some short frocks seemed armor-like.

Chiuri cited a book about Mary, Queen of Scots and her embroidery work as an inspiration. A white shirt tucked under a white corset were embroidered with various words in red, including "fierce", "hysterical", "emotional" and "bossy."

Chiuri, who often works with female collaborators for shows, teamed up with Scottish designer Samantha McCoach, of the brand Le Kilt, for some creations.

The looks were accessorized with chunky black boots, long black gloves and chokers with pearls.

“Scotland is an important reference in the fashion world and I wanted to interpret it in a different way," Chiuri told fashion magazine Vogue ahead of the show.

"For my generation, it’s so associated with punk, but there is another way to go into it, and that’s through the textiles."

Cruise, or resort, collections - produced by stylists in addition to twice-yearly seasonal collections - are often held in different cities or countries.



Bangladesh Garment Industry Short on Cotton as Floods Worsen Protest Backlog

FILE PHOTO: Women work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Women work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
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Bangladesh Garment Industry Short on Cotton as Floods Worsen Protest Backlog

FILE PHOTO: Women work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Women work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo

Garment factories in Bangladesh, one of the world's biggest clothing production hubs, are struggling to complete orders on time as flooding disrupts their cotton supplies - exacerbating a backlog caused by recent political turmoil.
Bangladesh is a leading global cotton importer due to the size of its textile and garment industry, but the devastating floods mean few trucks and trains have been able to bring supplies to factories from Chittagong port over the last week, industry officials and analysts said.
The disruption, on top of the unrest and protests that led to factory closures earlier this month, have caused garment production to fall by 50%, said Mohammad Hatem, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
"The industry is now under immense pressure to meet deadlines, and without a swift resolution, the supply chain could deteriorate even further," Reuters quoted Hatem as saying.
Bangladesh was ranked as the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world last year, after China and the European Union, according to the World Trade Organization, exporting $38.4 billion worth of clothes in 2023.
At the clothing factory she runs in the capital, Dhaka, Rubana Huq is counting the cost of lost production.
"Even for a moderate-sized company like ours, which makes 50,000 shirts a day and if the price of one single shirt is $5, there was $250,000 of production loss," said Huq, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
She said some garment plants were slowing resuming production, but estimated that complete recovery "would be at least six months away", warning that Bangladeshi manufacturers could lose 10%-15% of business to other countries.
Bangladesh's readymade garments industry, which supplies many of the world's best-known fashion brands, accounts for more than 80% of the country's total export earnings.
Buyers are adopting a cautious approach and could potentially delay new orders, said Shahidullah Azim, a director of the BGMEA industry group.
"The longer this uncertainty persists, the more challenging it becomes for us to maintain the momentum we have built," he told Reuters.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly.
Some cotton shipments could get diverted to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, commodity analysts said.
"We are already hearing and seeing some cotton for prompt delivery wanted by Pakistan and Vietnam," said Louis Barbera, partner and analyst at VLM Commodities based in New Jersey.
New orders shifted from Bangladesh could also be accommodated in southern India, said Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India.
Even before the floods and political unrest, the Bangladeshi garment industry was grappling with power shortages that remain a problem, said Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, vice president at the country's knitwear manufacturers and exporters association.
"Energy shortages continue to hamper our operations," he said.