Judy Chicago designs feminist set for Dior Spring-Summer 2020 show

For Dior's Spring-Summer 2020 show, artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri commissioned pioneering American feminist artist Judy Chicago (born 1939) to design the runway layout. The show took place inside a large white pavilion with soft curves, a subtle reference to the uterus. Ten banners, inspired by medieval standards, were embroidered with the key question in English and French: 'What if women ruled the world?' The embroidery served as a link between haute couture and feminist art. The collection itself drew on mythological and artistic figures such as the goddess Athena, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Botticelli's Primavera. Chicago, a key figure in the American feminist movement since the 1970s, recognized for the first time that fashion—long oppressive toward women—could instead become a celebration of femininity. This collaboration followed Chiuri's previous feminist turn in the Fall/Winter 2019 show, which featured anthropomorphic letters by artist Tomaso Binga (pseudonym of Bianca Pucciarelli Menna).