Latest news with #MariaGraziaChiuri
Observer
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Observer
Dior shows Maria Grazia Chiuri's cruise collection in Rome
French fashion house Dior showed creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri's cruise 2026 and fall-winter haute couture 2026 collections at a fashion show in the gardens of the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome on Tuesday at night. Guests sat under transparent umbrellas as models marched past on a gravel walkway lined with hedges. They paraded sheer gowns covered with lacework, textured dresses with rows of ruffles and long, tailored coats - mostly in white, ivory and nude colors. A sharp-shouldered trench coat, military jackets and tailcoats over skirts brought contrast to the airy looks, as did a few dresses in red or black velvet. After the show, Chiuri rounded the gardens for her bow as the audience stood, cheering and clapping, while mist rose from the gardens. The catwalk presentation, which drew on references to Italian cinema and theatre, follows last week's cruise fashion show from Louis Vuitton, another LVMH-owned label, in Avignon, France. The shows come as the luxury industry grapples with a prolonged slump in business, and a number of high-end fashion labels are seeking new creative direction to reignite interest from shoppers. Over the last five years, Chiuri has established herself as a groundbreaking leader, blending activism, craftsmanship, and innovation to redefine the brand's identity. Since taking the helm in 2016, Chiuri has championed feminism and social justice through her collections, making Dior a platform for powerful messages. Dior shows Maria Grazia Chiuri's cruise collection in Rome Her 2019 'We Should All Be Feminists' T-shirts became an instant icon, sparking global conversations about gender equality. Subsequent seasons incorporated slogans, symbolic motifs, and references to female empowerment, turning runway shows into potent statements. Chiuri's respect for Dior's heritage is evident in her reinterpretation of classic silhouettes, emphasizing artisanal techniques and sustainable practices. She has prioritized eco-friendly materials and collaborations that promote ethical production, aligning luxury with responsibility. Her partnerships with contemporary artists and activists, including Judy Chicago, have expanded Dior's cultural impact, fostering dialogue around gender, identity, and creativity. These efforts have garnered widespread praise for authenticity and influence. The 2025 show, held in Paris, marked a significant milestone. It showcased a daring new direction—mixing couture craftsmanship with futuristic design elements. Incorporating digital innovation and sustainable fabrics, the collection reflected Chiuri's commitment to modernity and environmental consciousness. Critics applauded the show for its boldness and relevance, emphasizing how Dior continues to evolve while maintaining its heritage. As Dior advances under Chiuri's visionary leadership, her body of work exemplifies how fashion can be a catalyst for social change, blending tradition with contemporary activism. The 2025 show underscores her role as a transformative figure, shaping the future of luxury fashion rooted in purpose and innovation. —Reuters
Vogue
8 hours ago
- Business
- Vogue
The Best Christian Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri Looks in Street Style
It was announced that Maria Grazia Chiuri's nine-year tenure at Christian Dior was coming to an end just two days after her swan-song show in her hometown of Rome. To commemorate her extraordinary tenure, we're looking back at the best street style moments outside her shows. Not only did the designer quadruple sales for the brand while at the helm, but she also had some of the most glamorous women sitting front row to cheer her on—from Rihanna to Jennifer Lawrence. Scroll through for the best street style moments at Maria Grazia Chiuri's Dior. Paris, spring 2025 ready-to-wear Photographed by Phil Oh
Fashion United
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion United
Creative direction reshuffle: Does the trust between CEO and creative director have an expiration date?
With Maria Grazia Chiuri's departure from Dior now official, new appointments are anticipated. It seems as though all that is missing is the station master's whistle and the call of 'all aboard' to begin this latest journey towards a new creative direction in luxury fashion. We are witnessing a continuous reshuffling of creative directors; only a few weeks ago, news broke that Pierpaolo Piccioli, after years at the helm of Valentino–eight of these alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri, who left the brand in 2016 to join Dior–was moving to Balenciaga (Kering). A year prior, Alessandro Michele took the creative lead at Valentino, after Piccioli's departure in 2024. Michele left Gucci in 2022, subsequently replaced by Sabato De Sarno, who served as the Florentine brand's creative director from 2023 to February 2025, shortly before Demna Gvasalia's appointment. Gvasalia, in turn, vacated the position at Balenciaga, which was then 'assigned' to Piccioli. We'll stop here, but the merry-go-round of appointments in recent months has, of course, been much more extensive. It is perhaps worth remembering the arrival of Dutch designer Duran Lantink as the new permanent creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier, perhaps one of the few truly new entries into the Olympus of fashion in recent times. Not that Lantink is a novice; on the contrary, the designer, already shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2019 and winner of this year's Woolmark Prize, has designed pieces for artists such as Beyonce, Doja Cat, Paris Hilton, Billie Eilish, and Solange. Let's just say he's a fresher name. Sabato De Sarno Credits: Courtesy of Gucci, ph Riccardo Raspa The question that arises at this moment, however, is not so much whether in fashion, as in cinema, there is a famous 'inner circle' of names that move from one label to another yet always remain in the spotlight at one brand or another, but how much this sometimes frantic alternation can really contribute to the growth of brands. Or whether it contributes to the loss of the label's DNA and the partial recycling of loyal customers (who no longer recognise themselves in the brand), rather than a real expansion of the target audience, which is what, hopefully, the top management of the brands that move creative directors from one brand to another are aiming for. There is no shortage of choice, given that in LVMH's fashion and leather goods division alone, there are Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, Loro Piana, Rimowa and Patou; while Kering today has, in the fashion segment, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni. Kering deputy CEO: 'There must be mutual trust between CEO and creative director' In this regard, on May 22 in Milan, during the Changemakers in luxury fashion meeting, organised by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and Zalando, Francesca Bellettini, Kering's deputy CEO, stressed: 'There must be mutual trust between the CEO and creative director, but each must have their role with mutual respect.' In complex times like the ones luxury is going through, brands must be true to their DNA and 'generate appeal and desirability thanks to creative directors'. But this trust, instead of consolidating over time, season after season, seems undermined in a short time and influenced by a turnover that, these days, has to do with the crisis, weak demand and the complicated geopolitical situation. Even the authenticity, transparency and coherence demanded by consumers and mentioned just two days ago by Matteo Lunelli, president of Altagamma, during the foundation's shareholders' meeting, do not always seem to be at the top of the list of priorities for brands. Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Balenciaga Credits: Courtesy of Kering and Balenciaga, ph David Sims Demna Credits: Courtesy of Kering This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior's First Female Creative Director, Is Leaving
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.
The Star
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Ethereal, dreamy, poetic: Looking back at Maria Grazia Chiuri's final Dior show
The fog drifted in over the manicured lawns of the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome just as the Dior Cruise 2026 show began, lending what was already a somewhat surreal moment an extra-otherworldly air. All the female guests wore white, even Natalie Portman and Rosamund Pike; the men, black. As they entered the verdant inner courtyard of the private manse, with its collection of Greco-Roman antiquities, they walked past dancers posed like moving statuary. When the first models appeared, to the strains of a live orchestra, light rain began to fall. Along with the mist, it made the clothes, almost all ivory and often so light as to be practically transparent, seem ghostly (even for someone watching through the computer screen): an ethereal stew of references in lace, silk and velvet – with the occasional tailcoat – to different periods in history and imagination. In a video call before the show, the designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, said she had been after what she called 'beautiful confusion', the phrase (co-screenwriter) Ennio Flaiano originally suggested as a title for (director Federico) Fellini's 8 1/2 . It was an apt description, not just of the collection itself, which seemed made for phantoms slipping from one era into the next, but also of the question mark surrounding her own situation. Read more: What led to Jonathan Anderson's sudden appointment as head of Dior menswear? Chiuri had nominally brought Dior back to her home city to celebrate the romantic spirits that formed her (and helped shape fashion), from La Cinecitta to director Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mimi Pecci-Blunt, an early 20th-century patroness of the arts who built a private theatre Chuiri recently restored. But she also brought herself and her audience full circle, back to the place she began. To do so, she enlisted a host of collaborators: the Tirelli costume house, director Matteo Garrone (who made a short film in honour of the collection), artist Pietro Ruffo, Dutch choreographers Imre and Marne Van Opstal. If that sounds like a lot to cram into what was essentially a 20-minute fashion experience, it was on purpose. It is widely accepted in fashion that this was Chiuri's last show for Dior. That in a matter of days the house will announce she is leaving after nine years and will be replaced by Jonathan Anderson, who recently joined Dior as artistic director of menswear. Note: This story was written before the announcement of her exit. LVMH, which owns the house, has not addressed the rumours, and when asked directly, Chiuri simply said, 'Oh, I don't answer this question.' It's too bad. The lack of clarity about her future, combined with the actual fog, gave an ambiguous edge to what could have been a triumphant farewell. Instead it seemed like a vaguely elegiac swan song. Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior waves at the end of the Dior Cruise 2026 womenswear show at Villa Albani Torlonia, in Rome. Photo: AFP Maybe they are hedging for legal reasons. Maybe Chiuri, who has the thick skin and stubbornness of many pioneers, didn't want it to be nostalgic or sentimental. But while the collection was lovely and she got a standing ovation, it could have been so much more. It could have been an exclamation point at the end of what will surely be seen as a meaningful era in the life span of a major brand. A celebration of the contribution of the first woman to run the house. Such a farewell is not unheard-of in fashion, even if designers now turn over so often and so brusquely that it seems rarer than not. Tom Ford ended his Gucci period with a shower of pink rose petals, a standing ovation and Nothing Compares 2 U . Dries Van Noten went out on a silver foil runway with a giant disco ball to commemorate the moment. There's nothing wrong with designers being recognised for what they brought to a brand, even if, as in this case, the decision to part ways doesn't seem to be entirely mutual. Especially a designer like Chiuri, who both helped grow Dior to what is estimated to be close to US$9bil (approximately RM38.2bil) in revenue and expanded its identity more than anyone may have realised. She is quoted in the documentary Her Dior – a study of Chiuri's work with female artists directed by Loïc Prigent and released in March (an early sign, perhaps, of legacy building) – saying she knew what she was doing. She did. She used her power and position, the financial might of her company, not just to assert a somewhat hackneyed feminism (who could forget the slogan tees or the weird playsuits under princess dresses?), but also to support a variety of female artists as well as a panoply of artisans. To insist on the radical idea that craft belonged on the same level as couture. And, perhaps most significantly of all, to break the stranglehold of the "new look". Indeed, in Her Dior , Chiuri said she told the Dior executives when she was hired that the brand's most signature silhouette, with its cinching and constriction of the female figure, was not for her. Read more: A look back at Jonathan Anderson's star-studded legacy of dressing celebrities To look back at her collections is to see her methodically dismantling it. She did so first by going through the motions of loosening the stays – figuring out how to preserve the shape without the restrictive underpinnings – and then by eschewing it entirely. Her strength as a designer wasn't in the giant productions that surrounded her collections but in the internal magic she worked with construction and material. It's why her work often seemed more enticing in previews, experienced up close, than on the runway, where it could look banal. It is worth noting that there was not a single bar jacket in the whole cruise show. Or a high heel. Instead it was strewed with Easter eggs that suggested a finale: references to Chiuri-isms past (to the short film she and Garrone made during Covid-19 and to the dancers she had included in other shows); to a possible future (her work with the Roman theatre); to the goodbye of her colleague, former Dior menswear designer Kim Jones, who resigned after his January show (as in that show, some of Chiuri's models were wearing blindfolds). Even the inclusion of 31 couture looks among the ready-to-wear seemed a last word of sorts. Couture is the next season on the womenswear schedule, and it would have been Chiuri's next collection, if there actually were one. For now there was just the Cruise 2026 show's closing look: an extraordinary gown micro-beaded to resemble a trompe l'oeil heroic torso. Or a relic, perhaps, of a time gone by. – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
