Dior Is Selling Feminism on the Paris Runway. Are We Buying It?
Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of Dior, turned the fashion house’s Paris runway show into a funland of popular feminism, decorating the set with neon signs that read, “Consent,” “Women raise the uprising,” “Patriarchy = Co2” and “Women’s love is unpaid labor.”
The light-up platitudes, or “illuminated manifestos,” as described by the brand on Instagram, were made by Claire Fontaine, an art collective based in Sicily. Guests inside the Jardins des Tuileries, including Sigourney Weaver, Demi Moore, Carla Bruni, and Karlie Kloss, watched as models in plaid pantsuits and radical chic fringe trotted down the massive stage.
In the summer of 2016—before #MeToo, before “grab ’em by the pussy”—Chiuri was named the first female creative director in Dior’s 70-year history. That fall, the Fendi and Valentino designer made her first mark on the luxury line’s Paris show with a simple white t-shirt reading “We should all be feminists.”