MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI

Feminist powerhouse and Dior’s current Artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri was born and raised in Rome. Sourcing some of her inspiration from her mother who was a dressmaker. Chiuri had studied at Istituto Europeo di Design, a private design school focusing on fashion, design and visual communication. (Business of fashion) After graduating, she had secured a job at Fendi, meeting Pier Paolo Piccioli. Chiuri had insisted that Piccioli should be hired at Fendi. As said by Chiuri to W in 2014, “ I think things much better to share a vision in fashion”.(H.Moss 2016) In 1999, Valentino Garavani had handpicked Chiuri and Piccioli to design accessories for Valentino. (H.Moss 2016). The duo had begun to manage the creative direction for the Red Valentino diffusion collection in 2003 and by 2008 they were both named co-creative directors at Valentino. Chiuri and Piccioli really grew the brand as they redefined the codes and by 2015, the business had reached US$1Billion in revenue. After spending 17 years at Valentino and just 9 months after Raf Simons stepped down as Artistic Director at Dior, Chiuri stepped up to the role. Chiuri became the first female artistic director at Dior, debuting her collection in September 2016 for Paris Fashion Week. Throughout the collection and many of collections since, make multiple feminist references. She continues to revive Dior’s codes, even bringing back the Saddle bag. Chiuri also continues to work with different artist for Dior’s collections.