What surrounded her name were not rumors. It was, after months of gossip at fashion week dinners and social media comments, a prophecy: before summer, Maria Grazia Chiuri would leave the creative direction of Dior. Last Wednesday, the whispers turned into an official statement. After nine years at the helm of the French house, the designer has laid down the needle inherited from Christian Dior.
Following the presentation of the Cruise 2026 collection earlier this week, the ovation was extraordinary. The designs, crafted in silk or chainmail, inspired by the torsos of classical sculptures or adorned with petals, linked the history of the brand with the elements that the Roman designer has woven into its tradition, such as lantern sleeves and turtlenecks. At Villa Albani Torlonia, the farewell of the first woman in charge of Dior seemed inevitable. Two days later, Delphine Arnault, president and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, publicly expressed her "warmest thanks to Maria Grazia Chiuri, who, since her arrival at Dior, has done tremendous work with an inspiring feminist perspective and exceptional creativity, all imbued with the spirit of monsieur Dior, allowing her to design highly desirable collections."
In Arnault's words, two of the four keys to Chiuri's reign: feminism and desirability. Over almost a decade, the Roman designer has turned the needle into a weapon. In 2017, by printing a phrase from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We should all be feminists, on a white t-shirt, her intentions were declared. Her collections, intellectualized and driven by an ambition for social transformation, have sought to affirm women as subjects. Among asymmetrical shirts and jackets that revitalized Dior's New Look, her proposals have fantasized about athletic Amazons and characters straight out of Virginia Woolf's imagination.
With a combination of artistic and commercial elements, Chiuri has placed the Dior name on the wish lists of East and West. Under her ingenuity, the accessories line has shaped the present from the past: the Saddle, conceived by John Galliano, returned to the collections, and the Book Tote model, created in cotton, or the D-Journey, an exceptional crossbody design, succeeded in making Dior one of the most "desirable" brands in the market. Becoming an ambassador for the maison has thus become a certificate of global talent: Rosalía, Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Marion Cotillard, and Olympic surfer Carina Moore now make up its diplomatic corps.
Chiuri has woven the third leg of her formula from the inside out. For her shows, the creative director has partnered each season with artists, always women, whom she tasked with composing the stage. In one of her recent proposals, Indian artist Rithika Merchant created an installation of nine paintings inspired by the work of surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning.
Each Cruise show of the French house has acted, under her direction, as platforms for the craftsmanship of their settings. For their expedition to Seville, for example, the hat shop Fernández y Roche created the accessories, María José Sánchez Espinar made the Manila shawls, and the saddlery Javier Menacho took care of making boots and gloves. The capacity for human creation and its transmission has solidified as the fourth pillar of the Chiuri era.
If the predictions continue their streak of accuracy, the hands of the Roman designer will not rest. The same sources that proclaimed her departure now announce her at the helm of a brand she shares nationality with. They also assure that her seat will not gather dust. About Jonathan Anderson, who in April left the global creative direction of Loewe to take over Dior Homme, they say his phone is about to explode.