Is a collaboration any good these days if it isn't at least a little bit unexpected? Who knows, but the latest from Dior is certainly a surprise. The brand announced this week that it's worked together with racing simulator video game Gran Turismo 7 on exclusive in-game character gear and a customised vintage car, the De Tomaso Mangusta.
It's certainly not the first time a luxury fashion brand has waded into the world of video games – most notable, perhaps, was Louis Vuitton with League of Legends which transcended the virtual and actually spawned a capsule collection of IRL clothes and accessories. This exclusively virtual capsule consists of a Dior-designed racing outfit: a yellow and grey jumpsuit; matching gloves; a reinterpreted pair of racer-style Diorizon boots; and a blue and grey helmet, as well as the customised De Tomaso Mangusta car which can be unlocked from the in-game Legend Car Dealer.
This dalliance with the world of video games is, according to Dior Men's artistic director Kim Jones, "a renewed invitation to push back the limits of creativity and imagination". The brand has even quite wittily taken on board the sponsor-laden designs of race car drivers' suits, splashing it out with vintage-inflected house motifs. There's the CD Diamond that was first created in the '70s, and even references to Dior perfume adverts from the '60s to '80s when the brand sponsored races like the Dakar Rally and Le Mans. And there is, of course, the fitting touch of 47 – a nod as much to 1947, the year of Christian Dior's first collection, and to a racer's car number.
The Dior gear will be available on Gran Turismo 7, exclusively on Playstation 4 and 5 consoles, from 25 August 2022.
