Maria Grazia Chiuri calls on the feminist art of Judy Chicago for Dior’s spring couture show

As has been seen at recent seasons, Paris Haute Couture Week is emerging as the destination to foster a viral fashion moment—arguably even more so than its ready-to-wear counterparts. It is a time to do something magical and eye-catching, a moment to trigger a conversation on the role of luxury and aesthetics in an industry predominantly taking place within grids, streams and timelines as opposed to IRL. Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri’s mobilisation of mainstream feminist motifs and ideas within her recent collections—most notably the controversially-priced “We should all be feminists” t-shirt—has given Chiuri a viral presence of her own, one which she continued to embrace for her spring/summer haute couture 2020 show yesterday through her collaboration with legendary feminist artist Judy Chicago.

At the Musée Rodin, the American artist worked with Chiuri on an installation, entitled, The Divine Feminine. The set, based on designs that Chicago had originally created in the 1970s but had never realised, took the form of an enormous, spherical goddess figure. Inside, ceremonial banners hung above the cavernous catwalk, bearing slogans such as “Would Old Women be Revered?”, “Would God be female?”, “Would there be equal parenting”, “Would Buildings Resemble Wombs?” and “Would the Earth be Protected?”

While Chiuri’s collection with its genteel pleats, gilded headbands, diaphanous blouses and dreamy ballet skirts has been criticised for not pushing any boundaries (and for a hollow employment of feminist ideals that are not exactly reflected in terms of casting), the collaboration with Chicago is undoubtably timely. Now in her 80th year, Chicago is enjoying a new wave of mainstream success—her first major UK survey opened this past November at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, and an American retrospective is due to open in May at the de Young museum in San Francisco also.

In a 2016 interview with Frieze magazine Chicago said in response to the question “what would she change?”: “Patriarchy, a global system of dominance that should be dismantled in favour of a more equitable system for the planet: one in which there is justice and equity for all creatures, human and non-human alike”. While Chicago’s brand of feminism can be—much like Chiuri’s—easily dismissed as twee and outdated in terms of its essentalising tendencies, there is a greater plea within her work for compassion with regard to all aspects of life and living, human experience and the environment. The pairing of a radical artist with the exclusivity of haute couture is unlikely to sit well with the old vanguard of political and feminist art, but there are still good things to be learned. Even within the confines of a rarefied couture spectacle, Chicago’s desire for empathy and a call for new ways of thinking and being in the world cannot be dismissed as viral stunt alone.