Dior artistic director steps down

Source: © Vogue Business Vogue Business It has been confirmed that Dior artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri steps down

After a transformative nine-year tenure during which sales quadrupled before being hit hard by a sharp downturn in luxury demand, the Italian designer is leaving the LVMH-owned megabrand.

Chiuri joined Dior in 2016 from Valentino.

She transformed the brand’s image and product offering with her commercial touch resulting in wearable collections designed to fit into the lives of modern women from day to night, and for work, travel and sport.

During her tenure, the label reduced its dependence on the best-selling Lady Dior handbag: a broader menu of hit bags now includes the Book Tote and the Bobby Camera Bag, as well as seasonal editions of the Saddle Bag originally designed by John Galliano.

Estimated sales quadrupled from €2.2bn ($2.5bn) in 2017 to €9bn in 2023, according to HSBC, making Dior one of luxury fashion’s fastest-growing brands.

But the label has since been hit hard by a sharp downturn in luxury demand, which has prompted brands across the industry to seek new creative direction.

Chanel, Gucci, Balenciaga and Versace are among the major brands set to unveil refreshed fashion visions under new creative directors in the coming months.

“I am particularly grateful for the work accomplished by my teams and the ateliers,” Chiuri said in a statement.

“Their talent and expertise allowed me to realise my vision of committed women’s fashion, in close dialogue with several generations of female artists. Together, we have written an impactful chapter of which I am immensely proud.”

Her successor is said to be former Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. His debut as artistic director of Dior’s menswear line is slated for 27 June during Paris Fashion Week.

Business of Fashion reports that "an elaborate runway spectacle staged at the Villa Albani Torlonia in her hometown of Rome on Tuesday capped a transformative nine-year tenure at LVMH’s second-biggest fashion brand".

"Chiuri’s shows, many staged in spectacular locations from India to Mexico, consistently celebrated global craftsmanship — broadening the brand’s focus from its speciality in Parisian couture — and were imbued with a message that balanced femininity with female empowerment, often in collaboration with artists.

"Sometimes that was more subtle, with silhouettes that achieved the brand’s signature nipped waist through elastic bands rather than punishing corsetry.

"Other times, it was more direct: her debut show included a T-shirt emblazoned with the title of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s famous essay, We Should All Be Feminists," quotes Business of Fashion

In 2020, she decorated a runway show set with light-up signs by artist Claire Fontaine that said “Consent” and “Patriarchy=Oppression.”