Maria Grazia Chiuri Makes a Feminist Statement at Dior Spring Summer 2017

Lara Mansour   |   05-02-2017

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‘We should all be feminists’ read the phrase emblazoned on a T-shirt from the Dior ready-to-wear spring-summer 2017 collection, as Maria Grazia Chiuri made her debut for Christian Dior, the first woman ever to take charge as creative director of this storied house. With the boldness of a manifesto, this inscription is drawn from the title of an essay published in 2014 by Chimamanda Adichie, a writer whose convictions Maria Grazia Chiuri shares.

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The opening look, worn by shaven-headed Ruth Bell in a white fencing jacket and knickerbockers, was a jolt to anyone who expected Chiuri to start on a romantic note. But as the designer sees it, the art of fencing ‘involves mind and heart at the same time, which women always need if they are to realise themselves.’ Quilted, optic white fencing kits with buckled-on halters moved through the show, worn with a new line of sneakers and knee-length boots decorated with embroidered bees. The bee symbol holds the key to another aspect of Chiuri’s approach, as Hedi Slimane used the bee as a motif while he was at Dior Homme. In the future, Chiuri plans to draw from the work of designers who’ve designed for Dior over the years. ‘Monsieur Dior only lives 10 years. It can’t only be about him!’ she said. ‘In some ways, I see myself as a curator of the house.’

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But there were plenty of things, which were pure Maria Grazia in this collection, when she staged the show in the Musée Rodin, trading the floral sets favoured by Raf Simons for a simple one of unstained wooden benches and a wooden runway. Through the line-up, the net dresses, scattered with flowers, leaves, and tiny insects, tulle dresses, delicate lace blouses, and Chiuri’s sumptuously innocent full-length dresses embroidered with tarot card imagery, were reminiscent of the work she did at Valentino.

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However, she also remained reverent to Monsieur Dior, working his love of tarot cards with a sprinkling of some of his lucky talismans, such as the number 8, clovers, and hearts, throughout. Highly superstitious and a regular visitor to clairvoyants, the house founder was said to have had his cards read before each show, which explains Chiuri’s finale of ethereal evening dresses with intricate tarot motifs. Together with this she still offered plenty of options for the modern women, and young girls in love with the idea of Dior, with her revival of Dior’s ‘J’adore Dior’ catchphrase, here transformed on heels, straps and chokers straps as, ‘J’adior’.

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