Maria Grazia Chiuri became Dior’s first female artistic director in 2016.
Dior appointed Chiuri in July 2016, and she presented her first collection for the house later that year. Her appointment was historically notable because Dior had previously been led by a succession of male artistic directors, despite the house’s long association with women’s fashion.
Before Dior, Chiuri had worked at Valentino, where she shared the creative leadership with Pierpaolo Piccioli. Her Dior work often combined couture references with contemporary cultural and political themes. One of her best-known early Dior statements was the “We Should All Be Feminists” T-shirt, inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay and book.
Chiuri’s title is often rendered as creative director or artistic director in different sources. The key distinction is that she was the first woman to lead Dior’s artistic direction, not the first woman ever employed by the company or the first woman to design for it.