Continuing her dialogue with feminist artists, Maria Grazia, artistic director of women’s collections at Dior, has unveiled a fall advertising campaign inspired by Marcella Campagnano.
Shot by Paola Mattioli, the ads featured a mosaic of portraits of models, representing different feminine roles and identities. It references “The Invention of Femininity,” Campagnano’s photographic series from the Seventies in which she poses as female archetypes including a mother, student, prostitute, bride and pregnant woman.
Models re-create the feel of the series, but are shown instead wearing items from the fall collection, which was shown on a set aglow with neon signs spelling out statements including “Consent,” “Patriarchy = Repression” and “We Are All Clitoridian Women” — the work of feminist art collective Claire Fontaine.
The campaign features Selena Forrest, Maryel Uchida, Marty Fall, Estelle Chen and Felice Noordhoff. Some of the models pose in a T-shirt printed with the name of the show, “I Say I,” a phrase lifted from a manifesto by Italian feminist Carla Lonzi, who was one of the figures who inspired the collection.
The Dior campaign was art directed by Fabien Baron, who also lensed an accompanying film. It was styled by Elin Svahn, with hair by Paul Hanlon and makeup by Peter Phillips. It marks Mattioli’s first major campaign for Dior, coming on the heels of several campaigns shot by Brigitte Niedermair.
