For more than 70 years, the brand has been designed by male designers such as Christian Dior, Raf Simons, John Galliano, Marc Bohan and others to paint countless glorious moments for the legendary brand.
In 2016, a female designer appeared in this position that was "monopolized" by men, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has pushed Christian Dior's popularity in the market to another level until now, but at the same time, the controversy surrounding her has never stopped.
Some people say that Maria Grazia has created a new Era of Dior women's wear, she joined Dior is not only the first female designer, she is more of a voice on behalf of the female group, is a feminist designer, adding a different women's wear color to Christian Dior.
Some people say that Maria Grazia's design is too market-oriented, so that the "face" of luxury goods is ruined, although the market response is better, but if you dig deep into its connotation, it is a "ruin", not only that, some people say that Christian Dior in her hands is more like a "luxury brand".
But in any case, there are not many designers in the fashion industry today who can cause such a polarized evaluation, if Virgil Abloh is the "controversial" in the menswear field of the fashion industry, then Maria Grazia is the current "controversial" in the field of women's wear.
In her body, you can always hear different voices, these voices gradually in the past few years, we have also heard the habit, and for Maria Grazia, who has been working for Christian Dior for five years, she has not changed herself for the mixed evaluation of the outside world, seeking a design effect that everyone likes and the market accepts, but still does "herself".
Although the controversy surrounding Maria Grazia has not stopped, the popularity of Christian Dior as we see with the naked eye can be described as getting higher and higher every day, and the explosion of each season has almost swept up the entire social media, not only bags, storm jackets, dresses, sneakers, high heels and other items are regulars on the sales list.
So what should we think of the controversial first female designer of Christian Dior?
"A Match Made in Heaven"
Before joining Christian Dior, Maria Grazia's fame had already reached the point where everyone knew it, and one of the important reasons was that the new Valentino era she and Pierpaolo Piccioli co-founded together made people see that the tacit understanding between the two was enough to write in history.
The two had been together for more than 20 years before Maria left Valentino, and before Valentino, the two had also worked at Fendi for 10 years, and after October 2008, Maria Grazia and Pierpaolo had been the co-creative directors of Valentino, and the two had been one of the most important "revolutionaries" in fashion circles at that time.
Remember the "fear" of being dominated by Rockstud shoes? Until now, it has been one of Valentino's most classic styles, an element that looks "out of place" with elegance and premium, which was reversed by the two and eventually became Valentino's "biggest weapon" to sweep the market and turn from bankruptcy to big winner.
And its rivet element, after its birth, is not only used for shoes, ready-to-wear, couture, accessories, bags and other places, not only in the women's line can be seen, men's line can also see it, after that, people think of Valentino, the first time will think of "rivet elements".
In addition, camouflage, geometric stitching, lace, butterflies and other graphic elements are also Valentino's best play, it can be said that in the hands of Maria Grazia and Pierpaolo, Valentino was the best representative of the "1+1>2" in the fashion circle at that time.
Moreover, if you put these works into the present, you will still feel that they are "established", and a series of positive words such as elegance, high quality, and fairy spirit seem to have no sense of violation in these works.
There was actually gossip that Christian Dior wanted to "poach" Maria Grazia to fill the gap in Raf Simons, and after Raf Simons left as Christian Dior's design director, the position was always done by Serge Ruffieux (former design director of Carven) and Lucie Meier (design director of Jil Sander).
But really when Christian Dior officially announced Maria Grazia as the new creative director, there was gossip that the christian Dior executives themselves only wanted Maria Grazia to be responsible for the brand accessories, that is, the clothing line was another designer, and really when Maria Grazia's first season of Work in Christian Dior was announced, People think that the credibility of this gossip is rising step by step...
"Dispute Re-controversy"
For the world, Christian Dior has always been a "representative of women", what is a "representative of women"? It's the brands that you think of that can use clothing to complement women, and Christian Dior is one of them.
For Maria Grazia's debut, she used the elements of fencing, fused with Dior's iconic bee pattern, and brought her views on women to this show, fencing suits are the "highlights" of this time, in addition to bloomers, lace shirts, semi-transparent skirts, etc. are also regulars in this show, you can even see the slogan "WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS" not only appears concisely and clearly, but also appears on a T-shirt.
People's evaluation of this show is divided into two poles, on the one hand, people do see the image that is different from the traditional impression of women, women are not only beautiful in skirts, but also wear fencing suits still have their own unique temperament, that is, Maria Grazia has given Christian Dior a new face, which makes people wonder how it will develop in the future.
On the other hand, people think it is terrible, the main reason for the bad is that the visual effect of the clothing is too "cheap", a simple slogan and brand logo, printed on the ordinary, no version of the silhouette, but also sold for thousands of prices, not only that, like lace shirts, sneakers, etc. also make people criticize too "cheap", so that people's views on Christian Dior have a "qualitative change".
However, the unexpected thing is that Christian Dior's sales have taken off because of Maria Grazia's addition, and you can feel with the naked eye that Maria Grazia's transformation of Christian Dior is polarized, but the market acceptance is inversely proportional to the evaluation.
Blockbusters like Bobby and vintage bags, kittens, and simple slogan T-shirts are all from Maria Grazia, and until now, the popularity of these items is still Christian Dior's perennial out-of-stock payment, and it is also the most widespread item in the fake market, which is also a kind of negative material that recognizes Maria Grazia's success in disguise.
Christian Dior Spring 2017 Couture
Christian Dior Fall 2017 Couture
Christian Dior F/W 2017 RTW
Christian Dior S/S 2018 RTW
In fact, what really pushed Maria Grazia to the forefront of public opinion is her couture series, "couture into clothes, ready-to-wear into "fast fashion"" is the biggest summary of christian Dior that many people have for her.
For the couture series, not every brand in the luxury brand is eligible to join the ranks, for Christian Dior, the couture series has always been its signature, how high people's expectations are self-evident, but our current things are through comparison to get their own feelings, people will Maria Grazia's couture series and the past Raf Simons, John Galliano and others, And in contrast to her ready-to-wear collection, people's criticism of Maria Grazia has become more and more intense, and until now, you can also find such a voice in Christian Dior's relevant information comments.
But no matter how much people criticize, Maria Grazia's feminist designs continue to run through every one of her designs, and in the market, Maria Grazia is the only darling, and people have reached a point of obsession with her designs, which is as obsessive as people are obsessed with Valentino at that time.
So, although Maria Grazia has been recognized by the market, but not "professional" recognition, so that such controversy has reached this point today, people are also accustomed to Maria Grazia's feminist design, in her hands, Christian Dior has become more "pro-people", perhaps this is the difference between her and all the male designers before, in today's era where market and traffic are king, it is obviously Maria Grazia is on the side of the market and is deeply rooted in it.
"A Thousand Histories of Fame"
For now, such a designer is undoubtedly successful, because she has enough appeal in the market to convince her, and has enough experience and confidence to lead the brand to continue to go on, and she is also the first female designer since the establishment of the brand, too many titles and achievements around her, so that she can leave her own strong mark in the history book of Christian Dior.
In a way, Maria Grazia and Virgil are similar, according to the perspective of traditional haute couture, both of them are "reforming" the brand, one is becoming more accessible to the people, and the other is to make the brand more street, and the results are relatively good, so LVMH may know the best "reform plan" for luxury brands now, and then "entrust" Kenzo to Nigo. The previous Kenzo Design Director gave Volkswagen only three seasons of work during his tenure.
In the process of fashion development to this point, "rejuvenation" has become a compulsory course for every brand, even if some brands belong to the same group, they may also make different ways.
How to neutrally evaluate the changes that Maria Grazia brought to Christian Dior is actually a bit similar to what Virgil thought after bringing "reform" to Louis Vuitton at that time, except that Maria Grazia's predecessor was Valentino's design director, and people's expectations for her were very high, and Virgil was only a fashion manager before, and in the eyes of some insiders, he was a traditional haute couture "Stains" are not exaggerated.
"Women's fashion is ever-changing, I have always maintained a keen sense of smell and openness to the world, in my opinion, the woman who wears Dior is feminine, and now the femininity is not the same as it was defined in the 50s, it is diverse, it can be masculine, it can be feminine, it can be sexy, it can be conservative, no matter what, it must not be cookie-cutter, but changeable." 」
In terms of femininity, Maria Grazia has indeed done it, and Christian Dior's diversity is vividly reflected in each season of the runway, because in many negative reviews, many people have criticized Maria Grazia for exhausting Christian Dior's femininity, but the real "exhaustion" of Christian Dior's femininity may be the people behind these reviews, in their eyes, Femininity may be a solid image, not maria Grazia's hands are as fluid as water.
If Pierpaolo and Maria Grazia were a nearly two-decade collaboration that blended their views on men's and women's clothing in an exclusive way for both of them, maria Grazia alone at the helm of Christian Dior is more like a "process of speaking to the world alone", as she puts it, femininity is changeable.
In Maria Grazia's design, although there will be some designs that seem to be "just bad money", the meaning behind it is "sharp", and in the fashion circle that has always attached importance to appearance, we have become more and more focused on the story behind appearance, is this not a relative progress? Maria Grazia may be the "storyteller" who shows us the world in her eyes in the form of costumes.