French Twist
From her perch atop one of Paris’s most illustrious houses of couture, Dior’s womenwear creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri discusses the advantage of having a global perspective
Dior’s womenswear creative director Maria
Grazia Chiuri discusses the advantage of having a global perspective
Last October, when Dior reprised its spring 2020 runway show for a rapturous audience in Shanghai (along with nearly 30 million fans watching online), Maria Grazia Chiuri, the womenswear creative director, made certain to give them something special. To the readyto-wear collection she had already shown in Paris, Chiuri added more than a dozen new looks inspired by Rosa Mutabilis—a variety of rose specific to the southwestern provinces of China.
“We are living in a moment when it is very important in a way to be local and global at the same time,” Chiuri says. “I love to make something special when I travel all over the world, and if I have enough time, I really like to make something new. To go to another country is a way to explore another culture and ideas—it’s an inspirational moment.”
While much has been made of Chiuri’s appointment as the first woman to design Christian Dior, and her fiercely feminist collections, she attributes her success to the maturity that comes from experience and the fact that in one important way she will always be an outsider. “Because we are a French house, I think it actually helped me to be Italian,” she says, “because I look at Dior with a different point of view.”
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“We have to maintain our heritage and our style. I really believe you have to create a signature, but at the same time it is very important to understand the spirit of the time and to be contemporary, to have a dialogue with different points of view”
“Fashion has to give a dream and a positive view of the future. This collection celebrated Catherine Dior, the sister of Mr Dior. After the Second World War, she started a business selling f lowers. I think she found in her business an optimistic vision, much as her brother found his in clothes”
“For me, to create fashion is a way to help women express themselves. I can’t imagine that anyone would want to make clothes that don’t help you to live in a way that makes you feel confident. That’s not my idea of fashion. In any case, sometimes we forget that clothes are our first home for our body. We can use a corset, of course, but it can be a comfortable corset. We can wear heels, but comfortable heels. Because I also want to run in them”