The first lady of Dior
It’s only been open two weeks but the V&A museum’s epic fashion exhibition, dedicated to Dior through the ages, is already a sell-out success. So what’s it like being the frst woman to take creative control of the legendary fashion house? Grazia’s fashion
‘Iam just me, Maria Grazia. I am not so obsessed with the idea that I am a woman designer.’ So says the frst woman to ascend to the top of one of the world’s greatest luxury fashion houses, Christian Dior.
Maria Grazia Chiuri might not be obsessed with the idea that she is a woman, designing for women, in a system that often seems to look more favourably on the efforts of men. Or that she is one of the few female designers working in a mostly male-driven corporate fashion world. Or that she is the only female designer to have branded luxury fashion with slogans from feminist literature, at a time when the female gaze has never felt more important. Not obsessed? Really? I am.
Christian Dior created one of the world’s most iconic brands and, after his death in 1957, six designers followed him – his protégé Yves Saint-laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and Raf Simons. Has there ever been a more maverick and intimidating bunch of designer alumni? There are easier acts to follow.
When the seventh designer, Maria Grazia, took the helm in July 2016, her appointment was celebrated, not just for her success at Valentino, where she had worked for 17 years, but also for the long overdue satisfaction of having a woman take creative control of Dior for the frst time in its then 69-year history. She has not done this quietly.
The designer marked her entrance with her We Should All Be Feminists slogan T-shirt. She went on to ask Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? on a striped Breton top, and write C’est non, non, non et non! on a protest jumper. She has put her models in fencing suits, factory-worker boiler suits, stomping boots and revolutionist leather berets. Her shows have been visual spectaculars of female empowerment and body diversity – not the actual catwalk models, perhaps, but she drafted in an all-female band of rodeo riders who performed daredevil stunts at full gallop for Resort 2019, and the flexible power of the Tel Aviv ballet company for Spring 2019. Her latest couture collection, shown in a circus ring, saw the sheer muscle of Mimbre, the British all-woman troupe of acrobats, build human bridges, hoisting one another up on their shoulders in one almighty display of female unity and support.
Many admire her for a point of view that resonates beyond fashion. But there are also those who see nothing more than the commercialisation of a noble cause. Either way, feminism is a hot seller for Dior. In the frst six months of 2017, sales of Christian Dior Couture (all clothing and accessories) jumped 17%, to just over one billion euros.
It’s snowing the morning after her January couture show. But even in a blizzard, it is impossible to miss the house of Dior, which grandly occupies a whole block in the majestic 8th arrondissement, stretching all the way from the Dior store on Avenue Montaigne along the rue François Premier, where Maria Grazia’s studio is located. We sit at a table neatly adorned with cakes and macaroons that, as is fashion custom, will remain untouched. Maria Grazia appears in her trademark uniform of jeans, black polo neck, white hair, kohl-rimmed eyes and fngers full of exotic rings.
Does she see herself as a rule breaker? A rebel? ‘Me? No. I do what I feel is important for me in the moment,’ she says enigmatically. ‘I try to give a point of view that is about freedom, that you can look like you want; it’s very important for me that women can come to Dior and feel at home.’ She is all about options, not diktats; she doesn’t impose, she suggests.
What, I wonder, would Christian Dior, the founder of this legendary maison and the subject of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new blockbuster exhibition, Christian Dior: Designer Of Dreams, make of her? The Frenchman, who resembled Alfred Hitchcock and died just 10 years after he opened his fashion house, wrote this of his seminal 1947 debut: ‘I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts.’ The New Look, as it became known, was his extravagant, rebellious response to the grim austerity of post-war Europe – outrageously decadent in an era of rationing but fabulously exciting. It made him one of the most important designers of the 20th century and cemented him in a particular pride of place in Paris and French culture. What must it feel like to sit in his seat?
‘ When I started here, everybody said to me, “Dior is a feminine brand.” Feminine, yes, but what does it mean to be feminine today?’ She explains that she came of age in a golden time in Italy and was brought up to believe a woman could do anything she wanted. Born and raised in Rome, she studied fashion at a traditional Italian school ‘that only talked about heritage, craftsmanship, sketching – not about fashion as an important impact on society’. She started out designing accessories for Fendi, a house run entirely by the fve
Fendi sisters, so there was no reason to shout about feminism there. It wasn’t until her late forties (she is 55 now), that she began to question her choices. ‘It was a specific moment, I thought why is it so difficult now to realise our dreams, to believe in ourselves? Or to throw away the stereotypical ideas about women? That you are there to please, to look nice, to always be nice?’ The moment of impact came when the decision was made to allow her daughter, Rachele, now age 22, to study in London. ‘ That was a big discussion in my family because it’s not in our culture to send the girls to study outside, but I really believe that she has to find her path, what she really wants to do with her life.’ Which meant giving her an entirely different experience to her own. ‘Growing up in Rome, I ate only Italian food and met only Italian people; the only multiculture that comes to Rome, it’s tourists. So to be in London that is so open, so multicultural, to live with people in the same building from different countries or go to school with students from different cultures, is another story.’ At the same time, Maria Grazia moved to Paris, where she works during the week, returning to Rome at the weekends to be with her husband, Paolo Regini, who owns a shirt tailoring business, and her student son, Nicolo, 25.
It’s quite a trip interviewing Maria Grazia. One of her favourite subjects is Mr Dior, for whom she has an almost god-like respect, revealing they have far more in common than you’d think. ‘Mr Dior was a reality man, a realistic man with big dreams. He had to dress women for their normal lives and not only for party, glam moments.’ This resonates, because Maria Grazia’s focus all along at Dior has been to dress real women, not some idealised fantasy of women; there’s an absolute reality to what she makes, be it the most breathtaking couture gown or her impeccable tailoring. (‘I am obsessed by tailoring.’)
Take her modern version of Dior’s 1947 ‘Bar’ jacket (the original, with its 17-inch wasp waist, stands in pride of place as you enter the V&A exhibition), which she transformed by stripping out its sculptural padding while maintaining its elegant shape. Isn’t this a metaphor for what she’s done with the whole brand? ‘ Yes, probably, because the Bar jacket is an iconic element of the brand, but I really believe that it’s not to be a piece in the museum. I want to give a Bar jacket that you can use every day, on top of what you want – tuxedo pants, jeans, tulle skirt. I am versatile, all people are versatile. Nobody wants to stay only one way.’
What about commercialising Dior? Many of her hit accessories are loaded with logos and monograms, from the J’adior slingback shoe to the enormous array of logoed bags. ‘Oh, the people think that it’s commercialism but, honestly, it’s part of my culture, because it’s pop culture. I grew up in the 1970s, with Warhol. I love pop culture.’ But are they not also real commercial winners, I venture? ‘No, absolutely. I am a traditional designer, my idea of craftsmanship, my idea of well done [she mentions a bag and jokes that it took 96 attempts to perfect – at least, I think she’s joking], I am very obsessed. I love a logo because a logo is pop, not because it’s commercial.’
But does she ever feel the pressure of a super-brand like Dior? ‘I am really obsessed with product and the vision of the brand. If you do a beautiful piece but you don’t have vision, it doesn’t work. Everything has to be correct. There has to be a balance between the values of the brand and the vision – after arrives the product, and if all this is well done, it will sell.’ True. It’s not like the 1980s when designers licensed their names and looked on in horror as their signatures got slapped on everything from ties to toilet seats. ‘It’s not possible now to make something in a marketing way. People don’t buy if they don’t believe what they buy, especially the younger generation – they look at what is behind the product, what values the brand
‘people don’t buy if they don’t believe what they buy’
has, where it’s made, it has to be authentic.’
She is responsible for two couture collections, two ready-to-wear collections, one cruise, one pre-collection a year, plus shoes, bags, costume jewellery and eyewear, as well as overseeing ad campaigns and store design – it’s a huge undertaking. So, what’s her favourite part of it? ‘I really love couture,’ she says, without hesitation. Her mother was a seamstress in Rome, so she grew up fantasising about making and wearing one-of-a-kind pieces, ‘ but I never imagined in my life that I could make the same, honestly’. She says she was well trained in the Valentino ateliers, alongside her creative partner Pierpaolo Piccioli (who stayed on as creative director).
Stephen Jones, the famous milliner who designs the hats to top off her couture looks, has always maintained that Maria Grazia is a master artisan. ‘For Maria Grazia, it’s about making women feel beautiful as well as look beautiful,’ he says. It’s an important distinction – and one that has made her enormously popular with celebrities. ‘Dior is probably the only brand right now that works for so many women of all ages and shapes,’ says Avril Mair, fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar. ‘ We’ve recently dressed Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas in Dior on cover shoots and, to be honest, I could put it on any cover rail and know the star – whomever she happened to be – would be thrilled to wear it.’
I mention this to MGC, who, smiling, points to the walls in her elegant office, plastered with framed magazine covers starring her Dior designs. ‘For me, it’s another motivation, that’s why I put the covers here. Celebrities have always been a vital way to promote the brand around the world. Look at the [ V&A] exhibition: it starts with the Princess Margaret dress, the most important British celebrity that Mr Dior had.’ ( The now nicotine-stained dress, made for the hell-raising party princess’s 21st birthday, is a must-see for anyone who has watched The Crown.) When I ask her what it was like to dress the Duchess of Sussex [for a ceremony to celebrate the RAF’S centenary], and what she thinks of the new wave of British royals, she tells me she bought a royal mug of Meghan and Harry for her mother. ‘She loves it – that’s a pop icon. Anything that becomes really relevant becomes a pop icon.’
The big difference with today’s celebrities, she adds, is that they are no longer wedded to one brand. Now they invite many designers at the same time to come up with suitable options, only deciding what to wear at the very last minute. ‘It’s the modern way,’ she says. So, it’s much easier when she knows a celebrity well. ‘ When you know them, their husband, their mother, seen how they live, you understand what they want immediately,’ she says of numerous megastars who must remain nameless. But I am allowed to mention the wedding dress she made for the super-influencer Chiara Ferragni, whose wedding invitation still sits on her desk. ‘Chiara was very easy for me. I always remember Rachele in front of the computer saying, “Mama, Mama, look, Blonde salad!” so I know her very well, watched her grow up, plus she’s Italian, so it was very easy, like making a dress for Rachele.’ And what does she think of the power of influencers today? ‘If you ask a child, 14 years old, what they want to be in the future, they say, “I want to be an influencer.” That is a new way to be a star.’
The next time we meet is on our cover shoot in London, the morning after the opening of the Dior exhibition. It’s always a bit of a challenge to get a megabrand designer through the door, particularly one who doesn’t like having her picture taken. ‘It’s rare that I am this easy,’ declares Maria Grazia, once we wrap the shoot. ‘It’s true,’ laughs Rachele, throwing her arms around her mother, teasing, ‘She can be really, very difficult. Eh, mama?’
Happily, this has not been the case. We’ve seen a different side of Maria Grazia – relaxed, laughing, joking, a proud mother happy to be taken to task by her daughter, ‘C’mon, mama, smile!’ It turns out, Rachele is both her mother’s greatest supporter and critic. She even wrote a critique of her mother’s work in her application essay for her MA course. (‘ Your feminism is clearly not intersectional!’ she berates her.) This is how Maria Grazia stays plugged into the mindset of Millennials – the key customer for any luxury heritage brand. Rachele is living proof of the young, strong, smart, funny, confident, happy women that Maria Grazia is aiming to please. The house of Dior couldn’t be in safer hands.