“It was very difficult for women to express themselves. But the new generation, I think, has to fight with themselves to change these ideas, too.” 

Maria Grazia Chiuri has made multiple headlines so far in her one-year tenure at Christian Dior, including the time she custom-made Miranda Kerr’s wedding dress and when she made a statement with the “We Should All Be Feminists” T-shirt in her first collection for the French house.

Now it seems like Chiuri’s picking up where she left off for Dior’s Spring Summer 2018 collection, steering the feminist course towards the millennials.

Art was the medium through which the Italian designer expressed the collection, both physically – the show was set in Paris’s Musee Rodin; and conceptually – drawing inspiration from the works of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, who previously modelled for Marc Bohan in the ‘60s.

Opening the show with a striped T-shirt reading “Why have there not been great female artists?” – the title of art historian Linda Nochlin’s essay in 1971 – Chiuri digs further into the socio-political role of women, which she believes is still a relevant issue today.

“It was very difficult for women to express themselves,” Chiuri said, referring to De Saint Phalle’s time. “But the new generation, I think, has to fight with themselves to change these ideas, too.”

De Saint Phalle’s infamous Nanas and Tarot Garden sculptures inspired the colourful reptilian-like monsters and graphic motifs that adorned the collection, breathing youthful spirit into the house’s historically polished air.

Patchwork denims, mini dresses, mesh frocks and low-heel boots replaced the delicate gowns and stilettos of past collections, signalling a new direction for the House of Dior.

See the collection below (swipe left for more).

Images: Courtesy of Christian Dior