June 17, 2021   David   Gallery Update, Interviews, Photoshoots

It’s 10 minutes until the Dior Cruise 2022 show and Jenna Coleman is surrounded by Dior ephemera in the Mayfair Suite at Claridges. “Of course we’re not ready,” she giggles down the phone. “It’s classic madness.”

But Coleman is not getting dressed for a normal fashion show. At precisely 7.30pm, the actor, along with the other friends of the house who are unable to travel, will tune into a livestream of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest spectacular work at the Panathenaic Stadium in Greece. The creative director’s tribute to Hellenic excellence and the local savoir-faire will seem all the more transportive from Jenna’s pink Art Deco hotel room, where she will bookmark her favourite looks sitting in a scalloped chair.

Coleman, a longstanding Dior acolyte who was outfitted by the brand for her first major event as a rising Doctor Who star, has chosen a cream check suit for her moment to link up to Athens. She’s teamed the archetypal brand tailoring with dark, punky eye make-up – an homage to the pretty-toughness she admires so much about Maria Grazia’s Dior tenure. “I love her exploration of what it is to be a woman,” explains Jenna. “Her storytelling through clothes, politics, art and music always feels so timeless.”



There is much in the new collection for Coleman to love. After falling for the dark mythology at the heart of Dior’s autumn/winter 2021 season and the symbolism of the tarot-themed spring/summer 2021 couture, Chiuri’s fairy tale Grecian dresses and goddess tunics tick a lot of boxes. “I like things that are darkly romantic but with an edge,” asserts The Serpent actor. “A beautiful dress with a kind of armour to it…”

These frictions remind the Blackpool-born talent of the facets she enjoys about shaping a character. “It’s the contradictions I find interesting,” she muses. Will we see Jenna wearing a harnessed ethereal Dior gown for the promo around her next projects, a small screen role in The Sandman and another in the indie film Klokkenluider? Perhaps with a pair of Dior’s new Dad trainers to give her the “kick” she always seeks? “I feel I lost all sense of what my style is in lockdown,” she offers. As one of Britain’s most beloved actors shares pictures of herself having a riot in her rosy hotel suite, there can be no doubt she’s in the right lane. Jenna embodies everything a Dior woman is.