Dior Fall 2022 Campaign by Brigitte Niedermair Hugs Mariella Bettineschi's Male Gaze Reversal

When Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her Fall 2022 collection, most fashionistas agreed that it was her most daring attempt thus far to engage Dior 2022 with Christian Dior’s “New Look”, first launched in 1947. The Bar Jacket and body-wearer’s silhouette have ben described as the most iconic example of Dior’s atavism.

The collection and its visualization in Dior’s Fall 2022 Campaign, lensed by frequent Dior photographer Brigitte Niedermair [IG], channels the tendency of atavism to revert to something ancient or ancestral.

Models América González, Maryel Uchida, Steinberg, and Philyne Mercedes are styled by Elin Svahn./ Hair by Damien Boissinot; makeup by Peter Philips

Rather than running away from antiquity upon her arrival at Dior, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri has mined it for truths about women’s history. As an ardent feminist, she is well aware that women’s lives weren’t always as constricted as they became after the rise of monotheism and modern, European civilization — extolled by white European and American men including popes and kings as the defining example of getting everything right in a few short years of human history. There was no need for any tinkering with the perfect paradigm for a perfect model of human civilization. ‘Finito!’

Giving women the right to vote was enough of a compromise to our incessantly demanding natures.

When Chiuri received the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honor, in July 2019, is wasn’t so much for her being the first woman to lead the prestigious House of Dior. It was because from her first day at the help, the creative director chose to explore and side with feminism against the restricting definitions of femininity.

AOC is not suggesting that Christian Dior was anti-feminist. Coco Chanel accused him of siding with the boys club and being clueless as to what women wanted. And his early move to lower hemlines when women had become accustomed to wearing skirts at their knees caused complaints.

On the face of it, Christian Dior seemed to side with patriarchal values. Perhaps, but he built the House of Dior with women at his side — and we’re not only referring to his influential sister Catherine Dior. This question is best left for another day. What is true is that women who could wear his clothes felt not only beautiful but powerful and liberated in them.

Consider last week’s convo Can Corsets Help You Reach Peak Physical Performance? AOC Says Buy 2. I didn’t set out in any way to marry these two writings — and yet they are deeply connected. I drove the political slant of the article on corsets, but Chiuri would approve.

In the Christian Dior Fall 2022 Campaign, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri lays claim to the essence of the original House of Dior, flourishing now in 2022. She lays bare an interesting question — at least here in America. Whose side are we on?

Most recently Chiuri explored Greek civilization — a perilous time of declining influence for women — in Dior Cruise 2022 Campaign in Athens by Julia Hetta Mixes Goddess Gowns, NIKE Sneakers. The designer did juxtapose goddess gowns and NIKE sneakers in the 2022 resort show just as her Fall 2022 runway presentation was styled with a more visible influence modernity than these campaign images. There was no ambiguity in the designer’s point of view.

In the Fall 2022 campaign, Chiuri is inspired by the objectified female subjects of ‘Old Masters’, as transformed by living Italian feminist artist Mariella Bettineschi. In the fashion show, the models clearly referenced the women in Renaissance paintings, but reborn as women and girls with their own agency and ability to understand the ways of the world at work around them. The styling of the runway show left no doubt about the creative tension between Christian Dior 1947 and 2022.

The women — and especially white women — were asked to perceive clothes in a life that transcends patriarchy and colonialism. Simultaneously, Chiuri invited countless models of color to communicate the essence of Dior’s ‘The Next Era’ brand essence on the runway, adopting the appellation of Bettineschi’s work as “The Next Era” to Chiuri’s own Fall 2022 Christian Dior Collection — with the artist’s permission.

Turning now to Niedermair’s campaign images, we must look much more closely — and AOC notes that the subtlety of the campaign has bounced over the heads of numerous fashion bloggers and commenters. Sigh. Brigitte Niedermair is applying Dior’s own gaze reversal in the Fall 2022 campaign imagery.

What is key to understanding the subtle communication message going on here is explained by the artist in her online exhibition, arranged by Bettineschi’s London and Rome Richard Saltoun Gallery with the launch of the Dior spring runway show:

"I TAKE A TRADITIONAL ICON, PAINTED BY A MALE PAINTER, MARVELLOUS, GREAT, WHO SAW HIS MODEL AS AN OBJECT. THEN I COMPLETELY REVERSE THE SET-UP. I REMOVE THE BACKGROUND, SO I REMOVE IT FROM ITS TIME, I BRING IT INTO THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD. I WORK ON THE GAZE. I WORK ON THE FACE, THE FOREGROUND. THERE IS ONLY HER. HER, AND HER EYES." 

- MARIELLA BETTINESCHI

Within this context of understanding, the Dior Fall 2022 campaign images do communicate a more 1947 fashion glamour statement at first glance. And we welcome it.

Without the presence of sneakers and padded vests that dominated the runway [see exception in image at left], one must understand Bettineschi’s artwork that is driving the visual narrative.

A quick IG feed scroll may not send enough data bits to most human brains for them to understand Dior’s Fall 2022 message.

The reality is that a team of women from models to designer, artist inspiration, stylist and photographer created this campaign and the clothes behind it. And THAT, my dears, is human progress — especially when Dior revenues are surging.

There’s no mismatch between mindset and money at the House of Dior. Maria Grazia Chiuri rules the women’s side of house. ~ Anne