Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest Haute take was a most surreal one. Down a checkerboard runway at the Musee Rodin in Paris, models walked into a surrealist wonderland of gauze, tulle, geometrics, pleats, satin and sequins. A stylish game of illusion and magic, Chiuri riffed the absurdist artistic movement, and more specifically, one of its foremost alchemists (and importantly, a woman) Leonor Fini.

All the classic tropes were there – languid lines, ludic shapes, nonsensical silhouettes – and tropes signature to Chiuri’s Dior, namely transparency. But, in a slight deviation north, it was the makeup and millinery which really stoked the surrealist fire. In what was a kind of Dior Masquerade Ball, a handful of models wore surrealist veils created by British milliner Stephen Jones. So deftly articulated, that from the naked eye the masks appeared to be somewhat of an optical illusion, a puff of pixels shrouding model faces. But alas, it was the expert handiwork of Jones; a multi-layered overlay of tulle which revealed only the eyes. Some, were letterbox-like, obscurest felt squares with dramatic eyes peering through. Others, were embellished with three-dimensional flies; the juxtaposition of beady bug eyes against fine tulle a surrealist statement in itself.

And what eyes they were. Designed by Dior’s Creative and Image Director Peter Phillips, he referenced the surrealist works of Salvador Dali, Man Ray and German photographer Grete Stern to create an exaggerated graphic projection of eyelashes.Such muses were integral in the creative process, as Phillips, explains: “Their expressive freedom inspired an extreme, excessive eye design.” With the new matte black Diorshow On Stage Liner, exaggerated flicks were drawn with Twiggy-esque flair; painted upwards and outwards with the utmost precision, they mimicked ’60s lashes – full-bodied, chunky and spidery. “I was inspired by that surrealist works imprinted in my memory as well as some very strong film images,” Phillips notes. “Long, precise lashes were drawn onto the upper and lower eyelids, framing the eyes and stretching excessively towards the temples.”

Models also got inked, albeit temporarily. Playing on the surrealist sense of humour and taste for subversion, temporary black tattoos were drawn straight onto fingers, ears and around the neck, excepts from French literature selected by Chiuri. “The chosen words and messages celebrate the creative free spirit of surrealism, for example: “Clef”, “Liberté”, “Contradicton”, “L’art”, “Bal Masqué”, “L’Amour est toujours devant vou, aimez!”, Phillips explains. Draping around necks and snaking around fingers, such poetry came to life through the unexpected use of body tattoos, an unlikely beauty trend to take away from Haute Couture.

A spectacular ode to the nonsensical; Phillips, Jones, Chiuri and Dior make magic once more.