By Mimosa Spencer, WWD
SPIRITED ELEMENTS: The rain hadn’t really begun in earnest when guests trickled in through a cobblestone alley to take their seats lining the white sandy ring for the Dior Cruise show.
“Maybe we can find an umbrella somewhere,” Billie Lourd laughed as she hunted for her seat. The actress is gearing up for her eighth season of “American Horror Story” and working on a movie called “Book Smart,” directed by Olivia Wild.
“She’s a goddess! I’m so excited,” Lourd said with a grin. Surveying the arena on the grounds of Chantilly’s historic stables she professed her love of horses but said she’s allergic to them.
“I’m allergic and it’s the saddest thing ever, but honestly, I’ll still go on them because they’re so beautiful,” she added wistfully.
“I used to keep my horse in a much smaller affair,” noted Alexa Chung as she entered the eighteenth century edifice, built by the Prince of Condé who expected to be reincarnated as a horse.
Florence Pugh, who plays a wrestler in the upcoming film “Fighting With My Family” glided through the hubbub, as the raindrops thickened, her hair pulled up and elegantly woven in the back.
“I grew up on horses. I used to live in Spain where I did proper ‘El Campo’ horse riding — it’s great,” she said.
After the show, Arizona Muse also recalled growing up on horses, as she gushed over the spirited performance from the escaramuza riders, who crisscrossed the ring in elaborate formations, with their lace skirts bouncing, on lively, white horses: “I loved it!”
“When I walked in, first I smelled them and then I thought, ‘Oh no!’ It’s gonna be horses — and I couldn’t wait!” said Muse, adding she hopes to ride regularly again one day.
Mia Moretti, who heads off on a tour in South Africa with Katy Perry this summer waxed poetic.
“The horses were beautiful — it represents the strength of human nature, the strength of animals, the strength of mother earth and all of us here in one place — all of the elements and it’s very beautiful.”
Olivia Cooke, soon appearing as Becky Sharp in an Amazon’s adaption of William Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair,” noted her character owns horses but doesn’t ride them.
“She looks at them adoringly — as monetary value only,” she quipped.
Launch Gallery: Front Row at Dior Cruise 2019
