Maria Grazia Chiuri unveils the latest chapter of her feminist agenda at the Dior show in Paris

Neon signs suspended from the ceiling spelled out the word “Consent” and flooring was plastered with pages of French newspaper Le Monde 
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Emma McCarthy25 February 2020

Less than 24 hours after Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of the sexual assault charges that kickstarted Hollywood’s #MeToo movement was a fitting time for Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri to unveil the latest chapter of her feminist agenda.

Certainly for guests arriving at her show in Paris today, the designer’s dedication to the cause chimed more than ever before with neon signs suspended from the ceiling spelling out the word “Consent” and flooring plastered with pages of French newspaper Le Monde offering an early indication of her mindset and motivation.

The messaging continued throughout the set with an installation that illuminated the catwalk with phrases such as “When women strike the world stops”. Inspired by the upcoming “lo dico io” exhibition of Italian female artists at Rome’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, it served as a starting point for the new Dior collection with the title of the exhibition (translated into English as “I say I”) emblazoned onto T-shirts.

Dior AW20 show, Paris
Getty Images

This was familiar ground for the house’s first female creative director who has made the slogan t-shirt her calling card since the original style from her 2016 debut which declared “We should all be feminists”

But there were far more subtle expressions of empowerment on the catwalk this afternoon. A simple black suit, featuring a modern incarnation of Dior’s iconic Bar Jacket crafted from ribbed wool and coupled with a motocross-meets-tailored-trouser, opened the show and set the tone for a collection that was quietly confident and reassuringly accessible - albeit, with a luxury price tag.

Dior AW20 show, Paris
Getty Images

Referencing pages of her own teenage diary and photographs of her mother - a fellow couturier who “used fashion as a way of asserting herself, of rebelling, and communicating to others how she wanted to be perceived” - a youthful energy permeated this collection, as did a free-spirited Seventies flavour seen in the printed bandanas and wide cut denim flares.

Chiuri called it her own “Little Dictionary of Fashion”, in homage to the book of the same name published by the house’s founder in 1954. Accordingly, many of Monsieur Dior’s favoured calling cards were renewed, from the fringing found on cape coats to the pleated skirts. A polka dot scarf lifted from the archives inspired a series of spotted dresses, while an on-the-bias-check outfit designed by Marc Bohan during his 30-year-career at the house fed into a collection of slip skirts at the hands of Chiuri.

Photographs of actresses who served as inspiration for clients of her mother’s atelier were also among Chiuri’s muses. Fitting, given that so many of Hollywood’s biggest stars from Demi Moore to Andie MacDowell and Sigourney Weaver were sat front row.

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