White t-shirt that reads We Should All Be Feminists, blue floor-length skirt with silver metall…

Maria Grazia Chiuri

born 1964

BiographyMaria Grazia Chiuri was born in Rome in 1964. Inspired by her mother, a dressmaker, she knew early on that she wanted to work in fashion. She studied at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, where she trained in the technical side of fashion design while exploring the cultural and artistic heritage of the Italian capital. Art history and cinema have always informed her work, notably during her time at Fendi, a house for which she designed handbags, starting in 1989. In 1999, she was appointed head of accessories at Valentino, and from 2008 to 2016 held the position of joint creative director alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli.

In 2016 Maria Grazia Chiuri was named creative director of women's haute couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories collections for Dior, becoming the first woman to hold this position at the house. "I strive to be attentive to what is happening in the world and to create fashion that resembles the women of today. Fashion that accompanies them in their transformations, avoiding stereotypical categories of masculine/feminine, young/less young, and reason/emotion, which also have complementary aspects," she explained at her first runway show for the House of Dior. She stepped down in 2025.

The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT honored Maria Grazia Chiuri, then creative director of women's haute couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories collections for Dior, with its 2022 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion at a luncheon, at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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