Maria Grazia Chiuri’s New Anthology Book Her Dior Celebrates the Female Gaze

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As the first-ever female Creative Director for the house of Dior, Italian-born fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri has made her mark on the fashion industry instilling a strong focus on feminism in her work. Ever since joining Dior in 2016, Chiuri has famously worked with female fashion photographers and co-opted Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists essay, famously putting the statement on Dior t-shirts.

This year, Chiuri is making yet another solid step towards change. On March 8th, 2021 for International Women’s Day, Chiuri will release a brand new book Her Dior: Maria Grazia Chiuri’s New Voice which celebrates the work of female photographers under the house. Featuring the works of 33 female photographers, such as Brigitte Niedermair, Sarah Moon, Bettina Rheims, Lean Lui, Maya Goded, Julia Hetta and Janette Beckman, the anthology looks at the camera lens through the female eye. The photograph of the now-iconic “We should all be feminists” T-shirt is featured on the cover as the reinforcement of the statement. The book becomes an ode to female empowerment and promotes diversity in male-dominated fashion photography world.

Chiuri puts a spotlight on the talented women who capture the essence of Dior and explores the power of the female gaze. The idea of the female gaze becomes an antithesis to the original concept of the male gaze – a term developed by film theorist Laura Mulvey. In her 1975 study, Mulvey defines the male gaze as a manner of depicting female characters in the film from the perspective of male viewers, that places women into a position of objects without agency, merely aimed to please the male gaze. In reference to the term, Chiuri raises an important topic for the fashion industry as well, celebrating the creative voice of female photographers. As women depict other women through their own lens, the pictures tell a different narrative – one of a strong woman in the fashion industry.

“Seeking a dialogue from the outset with these women artists, writers and activists, they themselves at times distant from me and from fashion, was part and parcel of my focus on the reasons and the situations that I believed were urgent, and that I wanted to put at the heart of my creative process,” Chiuri writes in the preface.

In addition, Chiuri continues exploring the concept through The Female Gaze podcast series. Chiuri’s dialogs with female photographers and the friends of the House are moderated by a British journalist and author Charlotte Jansen and further delve into issues of self-affirmation, image, identity and representation of women in fashion photography.

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createdAt:Fri, 26 Feb 2021 19:38:11 +0000
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