Since assuming the role of Dior’s first female creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri has been incorporating a feminist flair into all of her work. In her inaugural collection, models strutted down the spring 2017 runway in the insta-worthy ‘We should all be feminists’ T-shirts—inspired by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay. Chiuri has since collaborated with a slew of notable female creatives for her collections as well as her presentations.
Last year, for the spring haute couture show, Chiuri tapped feminist art legend Judy Chicago to pay homage to ‘The Divine Feminine’. The womb-like set was adorned by a series of 21 panels emblazoned with rhetorical questions such as ‘What if women ruled the world?’, ‘Would there be violence?’ and ‘Would men and women be equal?’ in both English and French. The thought-provoking banners were created in collaboration with The Chanakya School of Craft, a non-profit founded by Monica Shah and Karishma Swali in 2017, which empowers female artisans and preserves the crafts that are part of India’s cultural heritage.
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The Dior couture autumn/winter 2021-2022 collection was unveiled at the Musée Rodin in Paris yesterday, and this time, Chiuri collaborated with French artist Éva Jospin for an immersive gallery experience. Titled ‘Chambre de Soie’ (silk room), the work is a nod to the Indian-style tapestries in the Embroidery Room at the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, and to the modernist author Virginia Woolfe’s feminist manifesto, A Room Of One's Own. Jospin, who is known for her elaborate cardboard structures, dreamed up a world of her own characterised by walls of foliage, boulders and imaginary architecture.
