Ave Maria

Justine Picardie talks to her long-time friend Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of womenswear at Dior, about feminine strength, familial ties and fashion as an act of resistance.

- Justine Picardie

On a sultry Sunday afternoon in high summer, Maria Grazia Chiuri is hard at work in Dior's Paris headquarters, overseeing the final fittings for her latest couture collection, which will be presented the following day. Her short, silvery-blonde hair is swept back from her handsome, classically Roman face.

She wears not a scrap of make-up and looks entirely herself: at ease in a loose white shirt, black trousers and flat sandals, all of her own design. Her dark eyes are intent and focused as she inspects every garment, paying careful attention to how it looks, both in movement and up close. "Che bella!" she says when she is satisfied, smiling and nodding, signalling that it is time to move on to examine the next in a series of 68 exquisitely beautiful outfits: long, flowing silk-chiffon gowns and intricately embroidered coats. She takes the time to point out details that she thinks I will appreciate: hand-woven textiles and needlepoint floral motifs. "Look, these are four-leaf clovers on the 'Miss Dior' dress," she tells me, with her customary warmth and enthusiasm, knowing that I will take pleasure in the inclusion of these lucky talismans amid the "mille-fleurs" embroidery (the hallmark of Christian Dior's original 'Miss Dior' dress from 1949).

I have watched Maria Grazia engage in a similarly painstaking process in the past: first at Valentino, where she worked for 17 years with her collaborator at the time, Pierpaolo Piccioli, and then at Dior, after her appointment in 2016 as the first female creative director of this hallowed brand. Having started her career at Fendi, in her home city of Rome, she learnt her craft from its famous clan of five sisters (and was key to the successful launch of the Baguette bag).