Staring down the barrel of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s kohl-framed gaze, I feel suddenly uneasy. “Designers who are men can do womenswear,” she says with heavy irony. “But designers who are women cannot do menswear.” I’ve just delivered a question about what will, in June, be her first menswear show as Fendi’s Chief Creative Officer. Clumsily asked and slightly misunderstood, it has catalyzed a jolt of sarcastic clarity about misogyny in fashion.
Warming up, she raises an eyebrow, smiles, and leans forward. “Because geniuses are only men! Creative people, only men!” She pauses, as if to consider: “ What about Miuccia Prada? But she’s a founder, eh? Chanel, poverina? Schiaparelli? It’s like chefs: a chef is a man. And a cuoca [female cook] is not equal. Nothing changes.”
Wait. What about Chiuri’s own record of changemaking? In 2016 she became Christian Dior’s first-ever female Creative Director (of womenswear, haute couture, and accessories, but not menswear). Over the next nine years her feminocentric, feminist, collaborative approach to design and storytelling at the French house surely changed that discourse: because while yes, her collections sometimes divided the critics, they nearly always entranced the clients. And along the way, by the way, she close-to quadrupled revenues.
“Yes, and everybody remembers me because I did the big number in Dior! When a male designer does a big number, [it is because] he has a sense of business. But if a woman designer does a big number, it is because she is commercial.” She enunciates commercial with the same dismissive emphasis that the word is so often harnessed to in fashion (albeit not by CEOs). “It’s a mentality. It’s cultural!” As Chiuri says this, I think en passant of Virginie Viard at Chanel.
In the face of friendly fire, it’s time to deflect. Let’s bring it back to Fendi, where Chiuri was announced Chief Creative Officer last October, six months after her departure from Dior. Fendi is where, aged 24, Chiuri began her career as an accessories designer in 1989. It’s where she worked when she had her children, during a time when she was mentored by the five Fendi sisters—Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda—in a supportive culture she has often described as a sorority.
The new Fendi accessories campaign by Maria Grazia Chiuri shot by Jo Ann CallisPhoto: Courtesy of Fendi
Chiuri takes control. “The Fendi sisters too. Everybody speaks only about Karl Lagerfeld, like they did nothing. I’m sorry, eh.” She laughs a full laugh, and the balloon is punctured. “I’m sorry eh! Mi parte proprio la brocca! (I’m really losing my temper!) I don’t want to discuss this system. I’m… it’s… so boring.”