S1 E18

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FROM ANDREA BATILLA

MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI AND THE INCONSISTENCY OF LACE

In Look 18 of Christian Dior’s Spring/Summer 2017 runway show—the first under Maria Grazia Chiuri’s creative direction—the now-famous T-shirt with the slogan We Should All Be Feminists made its debut. The phrase is the title of an essay by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The essay had gained popularity partly because Beyoncé sampled it in her 2014 song Flawless, but also because Adichie is a highly successful author who explores the condition of women in Nigeria, drawing parallels with that of American and Western women.

The cotton/linen T-shirt, Made in Italy, was available until recently on Dior’s website for €850.

The full-circle moment came when Chiara Ferragni, on November 25, 2023, waved a sign with the same slogan We Should All Be Feminists at a protest against gender-based violence in Milan.

This might sound like a scene from a Houellebecq novel, but it’s the reality that Chiuri has built during her nine-year tenure as Dior’s Creative Director. And it’s probably what she’ll be remembered for.

The cultural inconsistency of a project that has continuously and obsessively tried to align itself with the work of female artists—without ever offering a real rationale—ultimately masked the inconsistency of Chiuri’s work on the product itself. While her famous predecessors, from Ferrè to Galliano to Raf Simons, brought their own distinct visions to the brand—using Dior’s popularity as a tool to reshape its identity—Maria Grazia Chiuri made a conscious and commercially successful choice to make Dior fully accessible.