The Dior couture show set was created with the help of 150 female students
This week, Maria Grazia Chiuri presented Dior's spring/summer 2020 couture collection at the Musée Rodin in Paris, where the house unveiled its collaboration with American artist Judy Chicago, who had created the show's set, along with the help of 150 female students from the Mumbai-based Chanakya School of Craft.
The set was inspired by Chicago’s iconic feminist work The Dinner Party, and included a series of 21 panels, each embroidered with a question, such as: 'What if women the ruled the world?'
In-keeping with the feminist message behind the set and the collection, the collaboration also enlisted the help of female students for the project, with 150 women from Chanakya School of Craft on hand to help create the panels. Each took between 500 and 2,800 hours to create, using 11 different processes.
"The school’s purpose, much like this collaboration, is to bring women together," Chanakya co-founder, Monica Shah said. "The ladies who worked on these panels are from all walks of life – all ages and religions. We’re ever so grateful to the House of Dior, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri and Judy Chicago, role models who not only inspire young women all around the world but also enable their talents to shine through projects like this."
The Chanakya School of Craft is a non-profit organisation that was founded to empower women in local communities while preserving global crafts such as hand embroidery. Students at the school are taught the almost 700 techniques that are required to become a master artisan – a role that, in India, is traditionally reserved exclusively to men.
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