The Daily Telegraph

‘People say where’s the fantasy? But I want collection­s to be wearable’

Feminism? Cultural appropriat­ion? Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s creative director, talks to Lisa Armstrong about the new challenges facing the fashion industry...

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Cultural appropriat­ion is just one of the issues fashion designers have to consider nowadays. “You can’t imagine the arguments we’ve had about it in our family,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri, dark eyes glinting with what looks suspicious­ly like relish. We’re sitting in the Spanishgot­hic surroundin­gs of the Chateau Marmont hotel in LA, a few hours before her first cruise show for the label last week. Cruise has become a huge deal for the big brands, entailing elaborate spectacles in recherché locations. Chiuri seems extraordin­arily relaxed, however, dressed in jeans, a vintage black velvet jacket borrowed from her daughter, her mocha eyes dramatical­ly emphasised by her peroxide bob and sweeps of black shadow on her heavy lids. Given the pressure designers are under to produce numerous collection­s each year, I wonder what she’s on.

“I used to do yoga and Pilates,” she laughs. “But since joining Dior there hasn’t been time. Honestly? I never expected this huge job at my age [she’s 53]. I want to enjoy it.”

Dior’s newish creative director (she was appointed late last summer; its first female head designer in 60 years) is hardly a deliberate agent provocateu­r. But she believes designers need to engage with the concerns of the moment. Take feminism. “I grew up with amazing parents. It was a simple family – my mother worked in a dress-making atelier. But she really pushed me to be independen­t and not rush out and get married to the first man who came along. So did my father. That wasn’t normal then.”

Italian society still, to an extent, expects women to define themselves in relation to the men in their lives, she thinks. “It’s very subtle, but it’s there. It’s not that great for young men either. I really worry about the atmosphere surroundin­g young people there.”

She was sufficient­ly concerned to send her daughter, Rachele, to study in London aged 17. That was three years ago. Now that Chiuri is installed in Paris, she spends her spare time shuttling between London, where Rachele is still studying history of art (although today she’s in LA to support and critique her mother), and Rome, where her husband lives and works.

The family is close, despite the geography – but that doesn’t preclude operatic disagreeme­nts. One of Chiuri’s last collection­s at Valentino, where she was co-creative director with her long-term former design partner Pierpaolo Piccioli, was an homage to Masai craftsmans­hip. Beads, cornrows, feathers, it was all there: an exquisite appreciati­on or galling appropriat­ion, depending on your view. “Rachele was furious,” recounts Chiuri. “She said, ‘How could you?’ To us it was beautiful. It was admiration. I still love that collection But I get her reaction. It’s the younger generation. They think about these things differentl­y.”

There will, to a smaller degree, be cultural appropriat­ion digs following the cruise show, with its explicit references to Georgia O’keeffe’s wardrobe and native American feathers. The complaints seem fatuous, but this is part of modern conversati­on. In this respect, Christian Dior had it much easier.

Chiuri takes the discourse with good humour and genuine curiosity. Her 23-year-old son “couldn’t care less about fashion, but he wants to know where the cotton came from. He’s obsessed with palm oil,” she smiles fondly. “He goes around the house throwing out everything with palm oil. My husband says, ‘Please, can’t you just let me enjoy these biscuits?’” For her part, Chiuri thinks even a leviathan like Dior must start thinking about different ways of manufactur­ing.

In the meantime, one of her first hits there has been the We Should All Be Feminists T-shirt. At £490, it has been a sell-out, with purchases limited to customers who were also buying more expensive ready-to-wear items – like an upmarket Amazon add-on.

Inevitably, there has been criticism that Chiuri and/or Dior has turned the feminist movement into a faddy

‘Honestly? I never expected this huge job at my age. I want to enjoy it’

statement for rich fashionist­as. Yet evidently Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose book-length essay, We Should All Be Feminists, inspired the T-shirts, has no problem with Chiuri’s methods, attending both her first show at Dior last September, and the one last Thursday. Listening to Chiuri, it seems ridiculous to doubt her sincerity. This was no Pepsi moment.

“One of the first things I read when I arrived at Dior was that this is such a feminine house. Christian Dior said that women are like flowers.” She pauses, pressing her Goth be-ringed

fingers together in that way Italians do to suggest a raised eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but what does that mean today? What does femininity look like? What flower would a woman be in 2017? We have to talk about these issues and I wanted to put out an immediate sign.” Hence the T-shirts.

The conversati­on around feminism has been stoked further since Donald Trump’s election. “The timing makes me look clever, but I was lucky,” she says. Luck had nothing to do with the heat around her kittenheel slingbacks with their J’adior sewingtape straps (right). A shrewd combinatio­n of Dior daintiness and clickbait branding which may, or may not be taken ironically, they’re quintessen­tially Chiuri. She previously worked at Fendi, where, along with Piccioli, she came up with the stupendous­ly successful Baguette bag. Subsequent­ly they turned Valentino into one of the hottest, most chicly romantic labels in fashion.

“Dior’s problem at the moment,” one insider at the company tells me, “is getting enough stock. And this is not a house that doesn’t believe in its own ready-towear. We order it, but it’s flying. The stores look too empty.” Staff have been asked not to exercise their right to buy the most popular Dior items on their discounts.

In fashion, instant success predictabl­y elicits charges of being overly commercial or wearable, as if fashion must be a hermetical­lysealed chamber of inaccessib­le ideas to be considered authentica­lly creative. Yet Chiuri, with her reinventio­n of Dior as a house that does luxury staples, including the classic Dior Bar jacket – impeccably fitted yet light and effortless to wear, whether it be with a long evening dress or with denim – is making the label properly relevant in a way it hasn’t been. Those delicate, embroidere­d tulle skirts, biker jackets and kick flared silk trousers aren’t only being snapped up by the rich; they’re being copied in Zara. “Fashion people always like to ask about any collection, ‘Where’s the fantasy?’” she says. “But I want to be able to wear my fantasy. I like things to be comfortabl­e, not just hanging in my wardrobe. Fashion should support women. Not oppress them.”

 ??  ?? Chiuri, above, at last week’s cruise show; one of its standout looks, left; hit designs from the SS17 collection, inset right; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Dior, below
Chiuri, above, at last week’s cruise show; one of its standout looks, left; hit designs from the SS17 collection, inset right; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Dior, below
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 ??  ?? Top right: Chiuri with daughter Rachele, and, above right, actress Natalie Portman wearing Dior
Top right: Chiuri with daughter Rachele, and, above right, actress Natalie Portman wearing Dior
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