Tantalising and cathartic, emotive and mesmerising, Dior told the tale of a twisted fairytale "Disturbing Beauty" for their AW 21 collection.

The Hall of Mirrors takes centre stage as models marched out one by one echoing through the Palace of Versailles, chillingly with hooded faces, veiled eyes, asserted boldly in black with a splash of violent reds. Cashmere coats, hooded capes and shimmering lamé - stereotypes and archetypes are challenged and revisited through the narratives and heroines of our fairytale favourites.

Inspired by the stories of Jean Cocteau and fairytale writers Madame d’Aulnoy and Madame Leprince de Beaumont, the collection showcases a constellation of clothes nostalgic of Red Riding Hood, the Queen of Hearts and the Beauty and the Beast. Layered tulles, finely pleated gowns, Bar jackets punctuated with Dior's cannage motif with white collars and long belted coats, "Disturbing Beauty" is almost a collection of a fairytale in mourning.

Almost in childlike innocence, the collection delivered pinafores, white bobby socks and Broderie Anglaise dresses before time and space was erased and a new dimension was entered as ready to wear rolled into evening wear. Princess gowns voluminous and grand, Dior greets us with dresses blanketed in tulle, all tiered, pleated and draped in an explosion of colour that leaves us nothing short of the dresses that were once only reserved in our fantasies and fairytale imaginations. Leather, leopard print and rose motifs were staged all throughout, with fabrics weaved together in silver and gold thread as if the clothes were floating in air like magic.

Mounting tension and unsettling suspense lurks ever corner of the presentation as creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri magically blends memories of our pasts into a sensibility of the future. Dior's "Disturbing Beauty" delivers us a different take on hope and optimism, one that is rooted in the majestic, in fantasy and in the twisted tales of a fairytale past.

View the full AW 21 collection on Dior.com.