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| Photo Credit: www.stylish-news.com |
(July 8, 2016) The House of Dior has named Maria Grazia Chiuri as its
new creative director. The French fashion house hopes to replicate the
sales success engineered by Chiuri for Italian label Valentino. Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri will be the first female creative
director of Christian Dior, the famed French fashion house announced on
Friday. This means Chiuri will leave her co-director position at Italian
designer Valentino and end her artistic collaboration with Pierpaolo
Piccioli. Chiuri and Piccioli took over the helm of Valentino
from its founder Valentino Garavani in 2008 but the pair have worked
together for over twenty years. Together they maintained the label's
high reputation but also turned it into one of the industry's most
profitable and fastest growing brands. According to industry
insiders, it was this aspect of her career that gave Chiuri the biggest
boost as Dior struggles with flagging sales. Christian Dior is
controlled by French billionaire Bernard Arnault, who also controls
luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. "When
you listen to a woman talk about a woman, whether it is her body or her
lifestyle, her work, the way she travels, what she needs, it is not
conceptual," said Sidney Toledano, CEO of Dior. "It is practical. Maria
Grazia is very practical: very straightforward, very clear, and she has
no fear." "It’s very important to have the eyes of a woman designing for women," he added. Chiuri, 52, follows in the footsteps of fashion giants Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano. She said her appointment was a "great honor" but also a "tremendous
responsiblity," to be the first woman to lead a brand "so deeply rooted
in the pure expression of femininity." "I cannot wait to express my own vision," the designer said. Dior has been without a creative director since the unexpected
departure of Belgian designer Raf Simons last October. He expressed a
desire to focus on his own label after three and a half years at the
French house. Simons, both at Dior and his previous position for Jil
Sander, has repeatedly come under fire for refusing to use models of
color in his catwalk shows.
New Look, new director
Founded by eponymous designer Christian Dior in 1946, the house became
famous for its "New Look" suits and dresses which pinched in at the
waist and employed voluminous fabric - shocking for a post-war France
used to rationing. Dior's work is also credited with re-establishing
Paris as the capital of fashion after World War II. In its seventy year history of producing womenswear, every creative director has been male. The reaction to Dior's announcement on Twitter was overwhelmingly positive. Chiuri does not have her own label and she will have more
responsibility for other aspects of the brand than her predecessors. Not
only will she design ready-to-wear and haute couture collections but
will also be involved in advertising and store design, as well as the
shoe and handbag branches of the company. Her first public foray for Dior will be a ready-to-wear collection to be presented at Paris fashion week in September. es/jm (AP, AFP)
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