Not everyone can say they researched Dior’s New Look at the age of 12, but Maisie Williams – who was catapulted into the limelight as the feisty upstart, Arya Stark, in Game of Thrones – grew up a little quicker than most. Disillusioned by the dresses red-carpet stylists deemed appropriate for a pre-teen, Maisie took matters into her own hands and Googled: “Which designer is known for a structured and cinched waist?” Dior was her answer.
“I’ve never told anyone this,” she says over Zoom from Gleneagles hotel, where a Scottish breakfast finds its way to Williams as she downloads on the Dior Cruise 2025 show at Drummond Castle, Perthshire. While resort presentations of this magnitude are an opportunity to see and be seen for some, Williams – who played Catherine Dior in a recent post-World War II drama charting the rise of Christian Dior and his contemporaries – understands the special place the brand holds in history. “The collection was staggering,” notes this budding critic. “My favourite pieces were the tabard-esque tops – which felt very medieval, but super punk and brash and young – and didn’t compromise on the flattering silhouettes Maria Grazia Chiuri is known for. I love [the thought of] taking inspiration from armour, or things we wouldn’t associate as being feminine, and making it beautiful.”
A style chameleon in her own right, Williams’s look for the show – a leopard-print shorts suit with the nipped waist she loves – pushed her out of the late ’50s silhouette she has called home since The New Look promo tour, and towards the ’60s. “I’ve done a lot of looks throughout my career – like pink hair and sparkly eyeshadow and things that felt very poppy and fun and expressive – but more recently, I’ve been going for things that are more traditional or classic, and it’s making me feel really confident, which is nice,” shares the now 27 year old, who could write an essay on the narrative around cat-eye flicks, which she absolutely nailed last night with a new fuller flipped-wing shape that’s a departure from the straight liner she’s seeing a lot. The Alice band lending preppy polish to her blow-dry? A pair of fishnet tights employed last minute by hairstylist Ken O’Rourke and make-up artist Aurélie Payen.
Williams first spotted her haute safari suit (look 58 from the autumn/winter 2024 collection) during a sojourn to Paris in February and still has a front-row snap of it saved on her camera roll. When she saw it on the clothing rail in Scotland, it was “a done deal”. “Dressing for the shows gives you the freedom to step slightly outside of your comfort zone – I can’t tell you how many compliments I had on my outfit,” notes Maisie, who stresses how empowered she feels in Maria Grazia’s pieces. “She never misses.”
Tattie scones and haggis await, but what a pleasure to digest the presentation of the season with a thoughtful friend of the brand who knows her Lady D-Lite bags from her Toujours totes. “I just love it when nature and art and music and fashion and hair and make-up all flow between each other,” Williams adds of watching all that Dior romance play out on a bonnie evening soundtracked by bagpipes. “It makes me feel really happy and excited.”
Leave a Reply