Christian Dior has persuade Maria Grazia Chiuri to leave her role as co–creative director with partner Pierpaolo Piccioli, at Valentino. After many weeks of rumors, the announcement became official today.
Maria Grazia Chiuri will be the first woman, in Dior’s 59 year history, to become artistic director. She takes the place of Raf Simons who departed in October.
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Chiuri worked with Piccioli for 25 years, first at Fendi then behind the scenes at Valentino. In a joint statement, Chiuri and Piccioli said: “After 25 years of creative partnership and of professional satisfactions we gave ourselves the opportunity of continuing our artistic paths in an individual way with the reciprocal desire of further great achievements.”
“She’s very straightforward and a direct person and so, frankly, the first time I met her, I knew that she was the one, ” Sidney Toledano, CEO of Dior told BoF in an interview.
“I was looking for somebody that was deeply understanding the needs of the women of today and tomorrow – globally.
“To dress a woman is more important than ever today. The evolution of women is a special evolution and her vision and how she wants to transform it is really interesting, ” Toledano said. “Because she’s a woman and she has a different perspective on what she is going to do and it played an important part. I was looking for somebody that was deeply understanding the needs of a woman of today and tomorrow globally.”
Toledano added that Chiuri’s “hands-on experience” of designing accessories will also be important in the next chapter of Dior, a subject close to his heart.
“She has knowledge and understanding and for the accessories I have somebody now that has direct experience with the bags and shoes and this is really important. This is what we want to give to Dior, and so she will be very involved in that, ” he continued.
But customers should not expect the same Dior, he said. “It will be different. We have our codes, absolutely, and we have our values about the excellence, the savoir-faire, the silhouette. But Dior is also a house where you have to take l’air du temps and project it for the future.”
“I think she will translate it with her own eyes, in a different way and the fact that she is woman, we expect this translation in the coming collections. It’s not a constant look and she will have to put her own way to [how to] do it. The codes of Dior, they exist but they are not so [strict], you can play with them. This is something that Raf did and John [Galliano] did before, so there are some codes, but we expect her to bring something into the evolution of the brand, ” Toledano said.
Looking forward, Toledano said he felt proud and was excited to introduce Chiuri to the company and its teams.
“I’m really happy myself to introduce her to the teams, to the studios, very proud of that. This is a big moment, ” he said.
