Maria Grazia Chiuri Is Stepping Down as the Creative Director of Dior
Maria Grazia Chiuri is leaving Dior. After nine years at the helm of the house, it was announced on Thursday that Chiuri is stepping down as creative director. The cruise 2026 show, which took place in her hometown of Rome just this past Tuesday evening, will act as her last.
“After nine years, I am leaving Dior, delighted to have been given this extraordinary opportunity,” Chiuri said in a statement. “I am particularly grateful for the work accomplished by my teams and the Ateliers. Their talent and expertise allowed me to realize 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.”
Chiuri giving her final bow for Dior at the cruise 2026 show.
The news of Chiuri’s departure has been a long time coming for most in the fashion industry, who have heard rumblings of the rumors for months. Still, it’s a bit of a shocking move, considering Chiuri has been extremely successful during her tenure at Dior. According to the New York Times, she increased the brand’s revenue from 2 billion euros to about 9 billion. LVMH’s 2023 financial report celebrated “remarkable growth in all [Dior’s] product categories,” and the luxury conglomerate that owns the brand seemed extremely pleased with the designer’s emphasis on women’s empowerment and her tendency to collaborate with artists for various presentations.
In her most recent presentation, Chiuri collaborated with the Tirelli costume house, artist Pietro Ruffo, Dutch choreographers Imre and Marne van Opstal, and director Matteo Garrone, who made a short film for the event. The collection, meanwhile, was inspired by Rome, and its immense history. Specifically, Chiuri looked to Anna Laetitia Pecci, the 20th-century aristocrat, patron of the arts, and founder of the Teatro della Cometa, a historic theater Chiuri recently bought and restored with her daughter. The city choice, the event’s dress code which saw women attend in white and men in black, and the use of elegant blindfolds on the eyes of the models all seemed to portend this announcement.
Chiuri with models backstage following the Dior fall/winter 2017/2018 show.
Chiuri, born in Rome in 1964, began her career at Fendi as part of the accessories team where she had a hand in designing the brand’s famous Baguette bag. From there, she went to Valentino, where she was eventually named the co-creative director of the brand alongside her longtime design partner, Pierpaolo Piccioli (recently named the new head of Balenciaga). Chiuri and Piccioli parted ways in 2016 when she became the first woman creative director of Dior. Up until that point, the French house had been struggling following the firing of John Galliano in 2011 for his antisemitic remarks.
It seems that Chiuri was exactly what Dior needed. As the first woman to run the house, the designer injected some social conscience into Dior when it was still trying to shake its association with Galliano. Her debut collection for the spring 2017 season featured graphic tees with the words, “We should all be feminists” emblazoned on the front, a reference to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2014 essay by the same name. Her spring 2018 collection quoted Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” while her spring 2020 haute couture show featured banners by artist Judy Chicago, asking questions like, “What if women ruled the world?”
There are not many women in the top creative positions of fashion at the moment, and now there is one less. Of course, the next question is: Who will replace her? Many have their bets on Jonathan Anderson, who recently became the creative director of Dior Homme, taking over from Kim Jones who exited in January. It seems like Chiuri’s departure will make room for the Irish designer to now spread his vision to the entire brand.
