Crafting Femininity: Dior, Gender, and the Future of Fashion

The choice of the fabrics is reviewed by Christian Dior and Marguerite Carré, 1957. Credit: Christian Dior

Unpacking Dior’s legacy, the gender gap in fashion leadership, and the women redefining the industry.

Historically, most creative directors and designers for womenswear have been male. Women have consistently excelled in both of these roles, Like Vera Wang and Vivianne Westwood, yet still seem to be undervalued in a profession where their own gender is the target market. The gender of the designer plays a significant role in shaping the design itself, and the value in designing according to lived gendered experiences is not to be overlooked. 

The legacy of Dior has always played into the celebration of women, and with the debut of the luxury house’s new male creative director, the discrepancies of women in designer and director roles in the fashion industry have grown more and more noticeable.

Dior has had a history of male designers and creative directors working on womenswear. Trailing back to the beginning of it all, Christian Dior debuted his first collection in 1947 titled “New Look.” Silhouettes rejected the androgyny and practicality of womenswear in the wartime era, instead featuring cinched waists, full skirts. With an emphasis on the romantic, these designs signified a post-war opulence, and allowed Dior to claim its influential spot at the epicenter of haute couture.

Dior’s New Look in Vogue. Illustration by Dagmar Freuchen Gale

With Johnathan Anderson debuting his first Dior collection as creative director this Paris Fashion Week, his leadership is symbolic of tradition and heritage. He has brought back nostalgic elements of Dior, like changing the “Dior” logo back to its original title-case instead of all upper-case and overseeing both women's and men's collections, which is a unification not seen since Christian Dior’s time. This leads to the broader question of if he is likely to bring innovation to womenswear, or stick to the classics. Referencing Anderson for Dior SS26 menswear, his style seems to go back to the houses origins with the iconic bar jacket and 18th century waistcoats. For womenswear, the designs that are often most iconic are ones which bend conformity and take into account the female experience. Although tradition and brand cohesion is appreciated, I am hoping Anderson’s womenswear debut takes on something more modernized, like his past work at Loewe with  ceramic chestnut roasters, and sculpted jeans.

Femininity by Men

It's apparent that many creative directors and designers of some of the world’s most influential womenswear collections have been and continue to be male. But why does that matter? Honestly, it’s debatable if men can genuinely capture what women want from clothing when they don’t have the lived experience of a woman. When a dress has pockets, I know for a fact it was made by a woman. In the straightforward sense, men predominately curating womenswear falls into a confusing situation of whether or not women are achieving adequate representation in the fashion industry. According to recent data, they are not.

Specifically, there are actually fewer women CEOs in the fashion industry than in finance or aerospace industries, while women still hold spaces as the majority fashion and retail employees, along with statistically making approximately 80% of the fashion purchasing decisions. Under 19% of women hold executive roles in the fashion industry like CEO and CFO, and women only make up about 37% of retail board members. There are many possible reasons for this, mostly the hiring process simply just favoring male counterparts due to patriarchal costumes that undervalue women. The fashion industry still fails to accurately represent its majority clientele. 

Of course, male designers and directors can honor women through fashio. Think Yves Saint Laurant’s gender-bending pant suit of 1967  which adapting traitionally masculine designs to the female body, and normalizing androgony. There’s also Jean Paul Gautier’s unintentional at first 90’s collaboration with Madonna with the cone bra, which had a massive cultural impact on female empowerment and dismantling past rigidity on femininity and sexuality. 

Madonna wearing the infamous cone bra. Credit: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images. 

Moreover, fashion is such a female dominated industry, so the consumer/executive contrast is worth noting. This year, global women’s apparel has a projected market revenue of roughly $963 billion, whereas menswear pales in comparison at $590 billion. So if men are a minority consumer, why aren’t they also minority designers and directors? Even a quick google search of “famous womenswear fashion designers” gives you an extensive list of people like Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, Giorgia Armani, and Marc Jacobs. While many are credited with celebrating femininity in their designs, they lack knowledge of womenswear that actual women have.

The Woman’s Touch

Vivianne Westwood’s punk aesthetic, which is woven through all of her tartans, leather, and safety pins, challenged fashion’s gender norms around what it meant to be “feminine.” Her designs represented a rebellion of the British establishment, and she was able to use her life experiences to bring the female gaze into her designs. 

Vera Wang transformed bridal, giving women more options on what they could wear on their wedding day. Male designers had played a substantial role in bridalwear, but Wang pushed the boundaries of this once cookie-cutter industry. The designer experimented with lingerie inspired designs and vibrant colors. As a modern woman, Wang was frustrated with the lack of innovative bridal wear, inspiring her to eventually fill the gap by opening her own bridal boutique in New York City’s Carlyle Hotel.

Vera Wang Fall 2020 collection. Photography by Inez & Vinoodh

Another example of a female designer using her life experiences to make womenswear is Kate Spade, known for her playful handbag bag designs. She found many bags to be overly stiff and formal, and not tailored to the needs of the average American woman who is on-the-go and wears many hats. She wanted to find an attainable way to distribute luxury handbags. The handbag industry was completely dominated by men, but a large part of Spade’s success was her understanding of women's needs. Through accessibility, practicality, and joyful, witty designs.

Donna Karan created tailored suits that flatter women's curves instead of being restrictive. She did this by using the concept of a yoga body suit to promote comfort, dedicated to dissipating the struggles that women face when getting dressed everyday.

Ultimately, it’s these observations from female designers in the gaps of womenswear designs that set them apart from male designers. Men can absolutely collaborate with women and dedicate collections to female empowerment, but they can lack the perspective women have when it comes to identifying what’s missing or isn’t working. Innovative fashion is creative with a purpose, and when womenswear is designed through the male gaze, this purpose can be clouded. For instance, women can design around physical insecurities that many male designers are unaware of.

Craft, heritage, and the Female Gaze

There are clearly enough capable and qualified women to take on these leadership roles, so by empowering and celebrating female designers and directors, we can help create a more proportionate workforce.

Gisele wearing Dior by Nick Knight for Vogue UK Nov 2006. Credit: Christian Dior.

Tracking back to Dior, Anderson has had a history of celebrating independent artists and supporting gender fluid aesthetics to womenswear, however his commitment to traditionality of referencing Dior’s legacy could potentially limit his work with womenswear. 

Dior has historically been a great example of male designers and directors finding success in womenswear because they genuinely attempt to innovate and style with the women’s gaze in mind, and we can only hope that Anderson brings his innovated spirit from Loewe to his new role. While each of Dior’s directors has had a unique sense of style, the excellent tailoring and quality of their womenswear lines has stayed consistent. 

Anderson may not be the exception to men being qualified to create womenswear, but it’s ultimately the fault of the system that favors male directors when it comes to his womensear designing abilities. Personally, I look forward to his modernized takes on traditionally femininity, but we’ll have to wait and see.

To quote from Christian Dior himself, “I create so that each and every woman is the most beautiful.”