Editing Leda and the Swan (section)

== In fashion ==
[[File:20140416 corfu239.JPG|thumb|''Leda and the Swan'' statue from [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]] in [[Corfu]], [[Greece]].]]

In 1935, German-born movie star [[Marlene Dietrich]] wore a dramatically designed Leda costume to a Hollywood costume party. Designed by the acclaimed costume designer [[Travis Banton]], a longtime Dietrich collaborator, the white tulle and feather dress featured a thigh-slit, a mid-length train and, most characteristically, a fabric and feather "swan" neck which coiled around Dietrich's own neck, as well a pair of large feathered wings, one stretching downwards across her chest and the other one upwards across her left shoulder.<ref>{{cite web | title = This Was Hollywood [@thiswashollywood | date = March 10, 2020 | url = https://www.instagram.com/p/B9kFMmQAsU4/?igshid=16l8o2ndth503&epik=dj0yJnU9Y2lueEpURWREeVZidDVXZGVsVGdhOWd5T0pPQllkYzImcD0wJm49akFJNFFSdnlrMFdaUnRaQzlrVEJjUSZ0PUFBQUFBR0hMUUZz}}</ref>

Sixty-six years later, at the 2001 Academy Awards, Icelandic singer [[Björk]] wore a dress by Marjan Pejoski in nude mesh and a white tulle skirt. The skirt gradually narrowed upwards over the torso to turn into a swan-neck made out of fabric which coiled around the wearer's neck in exactly the same way as Dietrich's dress from 1935. Although Dietrich's costume remains largely unknown to the general public, Björk's dress "attained cult status instantly"<ref>Gopaldas, A. (2021, June 22). ''An up-close look at the savoir-faire behind the swan dress from Dior Cruise 2022''. Vogue Singapore. https://vogue.sg/dior-swan-dress/</ref> and became an icon of [[Red carpet fashion|red carpet culture]]. Yet, the reference to Marlene Dietrich's costume was rarely (if ever) mentioned at the time.

In June 2021, [[Maria Grazia Chiuri]] as creative director for the French fashion house [[Dior]], designed a collection strongly inspired by Hellenistic culture, the [[Olympic Games]], and Ancient Greek Mythology, and showed it at the [[Panathenaic Stadium]] in [[Athens]] as an homage to the Olympic tradition (the collection was shown a month before the beginning of the [[2020 Summer Olympics]]). The collection's closing [[pièce de résistance]] was a Leda-inspired swan dress. The immediate visual similarity between Chiuri's swan Dress and Björk's [[swan dress]] sparked excitement on social media as most people inevitably thought the Dior dress was directly inspired by Pejoski's iconic 2001 creation. However, only a few days later, Dior openly defended the inspiration of the dress referring to it on its Twitter account as a recreation of a costume worn by Marlene Dietrich, who was, famously, an important and loyal client of the French brand during the 40s and 50s.<ref>Dior. (2021, June 21) Endless meters of white tulle [...]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/dior/status/1407081359496167428</ref> Notably, Chiuri's 2021 Dior dress featured feathered swan-wings spanning over the chest and shoulder. This dramatic detail, taken directly from Dietrich's costume from 1935, sets Chiuri's dress for Dior entirely apart from Björk's red-carpet dress, and makes it, irrefutably, a reference to Dietrich's costume, and by extension, to the myth of Leda and the Swan.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}