Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior's First Female Creative Director, Is Leaving

Forbes

3 days ago

TOPSHOT - Models present creatioins for Christian Dior during the 2018/2019 fall/winter collection ... More fashion show on February 27, 2018 in Paris. (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images)
Many years from now, Maria Grazia Chiuri's departure may be remembered as the worst-kept secret in fashion. While that may be true, it would be a shame to be so reductive about the Italian fashion designer's time at the storied French Maison, which was founded in 1946 by Monsieur Christian Dior and officially launched in 1947 with the post-war launch of the New Look. Chiuri joined the brand from Valentino, where she worked with work partner Pier Paolo Piccioli in 2016 by replacing Raf Simons' 3 ½ year tenure there. Beyond the soaring profits, the designer brought to the brand a feminine and feminist POV, an active engagement with fine art and Italian culture. Her last show concluded Tuesday in Rome, where she staged a Cinicittà-worthy production to showcase her collection for Cruise 2026 that combined RTW and Haute Couture styles. While not officially confirmed, fashion's second worst-kept secret is that Chiuri will be replaced by JW Anderson, who has departed Loewe and was named Dior's menswear in April.
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from ... More Fashion House) Models walk the runway during the finale of the Christian Dior Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 24, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by)
In a statement to the press, Delphine Arnault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Christian Dior Couture, expressed gratitude to the designer.
"I extend my warmest thanks to Maria Grazia Chiuri, who, since her arrival at Dior, has accomplished tremendous work with an inspiring feminist perspective and exceptional creativity, all imbued with the spirit of Monsieur Dior, which allowed her to design highly desirable collections. She has written a key chapter in the history of Christian Dior, greatly contributing to its remarkable growth and being the first woman to lead the creation of women's collections."
Chiuri also provided a statement in the release. "After nine years, I am leaving Dior, delighted to have been given this extraordinary opportunity. I would like to thank Monsieur Arnault for placing his trust in me and Delphine for her support. I am particularly grateful for the work accomplished by my teams and the Ateliers. Their talent and expertise allowed me to realize my vision of committed women's fashion in close dialogue with several generations of female artists. Together, we have written an impactful chapter of which I am immensely proud."
A model presents a creation for Dior during the Women's Spring-Summer 2020/2021 Haute Couture ... More collection fashion show in Paris, on January 20, 2020. American artist and feminist pioneer Judy Chicago, at 80, has pulled off the coup of her career by planting a massive temple to the mother goddess that hosted on January 20, 2020 Dior's haute couture fashion show. (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images)
Undoubtedly, Chiuri addressed several female perspectives during her time at the brand. To name a few, in the Fall 2018 RTW show, she splattered a wall of the show space in Sixties-era female power graffiti in a nod to the 50th anniversary French protests in which women's rights attached themselves to the larger economic and politically motivated civil unrest; in she debuted "we should all be feminists" T-shirts. In another collection for Autumn Winter 2024, the designer referenced the 1967 diffusion line Miss Dior, imagined by Marc Bohan's assistant Phillippe Guibourgé, which struck a note in the mood of France while experiencing its second wave of feminism, primarily credited to Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 The Second Sex tome. In the Spring Summer 2020 collection, Chiuri partnered with feminist art heroine Judy Chicago, who worked with the apprentices of the Chanakya school workshop, with questions such as "What if women ruled the world?" as a female empowerment message. On a side note, she also reintroduced the strength of the brand's famous bar jacket.
A model presents a creation for Dior during the 2021 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on July ... More 22, 2020 in Lecce, southern Italy. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
Chicago's work is an example of the overlapping theme of feminism and art. Both played a significant role in the work. In a show at the Brooklyn Museum last year, she enlisted art duo Claire Fontaine, the Palermo-based feminist-centric artists Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill, who also designed the Fall/Winter 2020 show space, and highlighted the work of Roman-based, Brooklyn-born artist Suzanne Santoro whose work was on display. The show managed to channel its Parisian Je Ne Sais Quoi via New York's gritty artistic edge, using Marlene Dietrich as a muse and employing each city's famous monuments as prints.
The Parisian artist Eva Jospin devised the Chambre de Soie in a nod to the embroidery room of the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, which also referenced Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own in the Haute Couture show in January 2021. Marinella Senatore doused a room with political protest slogans, a la the artwork of Jenny Holzer for a Cruise 2021 show.
Italian artisans and culture have also been celebrated. A Puglia-style carnival theme was created for a live-streamed show during the pandemic to honor the artisans who had worked on the collection. A somber, limited-attendance, socially-distance in late 2020 fashion show featured works from Italian artist Lucia Marcucci. This provided the backdrop for an acapella/operatic singing troupe, Sequenza 93, who performed "Sangu di rosa," a choral work by Lucia Ronchetti based on 19th-century Sardinian Voceri that combines classical music with funeral services epithets.
Horse-riders perform during the 2019 Dior Croisiere (Cruise) fashion show on May 25, 2018 at the ... More Grandes écuries de Chantilly, near Paris. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP) (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
She didn't always strike the right tone with her show themes. The Cruise 2018 collection, which featured Mexican "escaramuzas" on horseback, struck a nerve with guest Paris Jackson, who couldn't stomach the visibly disturbed horses performing to loud music amid a thunderstorm. Still, it had the cinematic drama and storytelling prevalent at Chiuri's last show in Rome this week. She has bought a theater that she restored, where she will most likely dream up more beautiful fantasies as she did at Dior. Grazie mille, Maria Grazia.