Who will be the next designer of Dior? What we know
Maria Grazia Chiuri is no longer the creative director of Dior. Oh, and neither is Kim Jones. That's according to WWD, which reports that the duo may be leaving their respective posts at the French fashion house, with Jonathan Anderson—who's currently the creative director of Loewe—teed up as Chiuri's replacement.
While it may seem like a sudden turnover, there were rumblings that Chiuri and Jones's days at Dior were numbered. In October 2022, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA—which owns Dior—hired Nicolas Ghésquière as its new men's creative director. Since then, there have been whispers that the house is undergoing a creative shift, with more emphasis placed on innovation and a desire for creativity over strategies that were too focused on growth.
In an interview with Women's Wear Daily in 2020, Chiuri said that she wanted to give a "stage" to female artists and artisans, which is why she often collaborates with women in creative fields. She explained that the house's famous bar jackets "are all handmade by young women, and this is a real skill that takes time to learn." She added that her favorite part of designing for Dior is seeing the juxtaposition of the brand's history with new designs.
She's also said that she doesn't want to be defined by the famous Christian Dior Bar Jacket. "The idea was not to have a collection with 100 bar jackets, but to use this iconic piece in different ways, like the idea of empowerment that the jacket represents, like armor," she told WWD in 2020. "It's funny because when I showed the first jacket, nobody cared. And then when you show it over and over, people say, oh, there's the jacket again."
Chiuri showed the famous "We should all be feminists" T-shirt in autumn 2016, and it caused quite the stir. It was meant to be a nod to a book by the same name by feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Chiuri has said that feminism is not meant to put women above men, but rather to establish equality between the sexes.
While Chiuri's work at Dior has been criticized—most notably that her designs had become uninspired and that her work lacked sufficient growth—Anderson's off-handed design style stands in stark contrast to Chiuri's heavy-handed approach. "I think the idea of design is to be quite precious and rare, like diamonds," Anderson told WWD in 2020. "I think that's what luxury is—that there are things that are not ubiquitous."
If Anderson does become the next creative director of Dior, he'd follow in the footsteps of Matthieu Blazy, who went from creative director of Bottega Veneta to Chanel's creative director for ready-to-wear and couture in June 2023. "I think that when you see people moving around, it's always a good thing," Blazy told Vogue in October 2023. "It's a good thing for the energy of the industry. It's a good thing for the energy of the craft."
And for the record, there's precedent for a designer moving from Loewe to Dior: In 2004, John Galliano left Dior to join Maison Martin Margiela—which was bought by LVMH in 1997—before being named at Dior in 1996. So, Anderson's path from Loewe to Dior isn't as far-fetched as you might think.
As for what the future holds for Chiuri and Jones, well, that remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure: The energy that Dior needs to have a renaissance of modedesign will hopefully prevail.
