The craft
evening in Lecce, a beautiful limestone city in Puglia, Italy’s stiletto heel. The spell is cast shortly before dusk, when the city seems to glow as swallows dart and sing in the darkening sky. Yet tonight, from my position on a rooftop overlooking the Piazza del Duomo, a new magic – a kind of human alchemy – is afoot in Lecce. In the square below, Dior is holding its resort ’21 show. This marks both a significant departure – the house has never before shown in Italy – and a significant homecoming: Antonio, the father of Dior’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, was born right here in Puglia. “For me,” she says, “to be here is to come back to my memories of the summers I spent here
