Dior is back at it again with feminist tops for their S/S’18 collection. And it’s a little bit more controversial than last year.
“Why have there been no great women artists?” read one striped long-sleeved top. It was also the quote used in the show notes.
Before you name the female artists who prove this statement wrong like Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama, and Frida Kahlo, note that the quote is a title of a feminist essay by Linda Nochlin. USA Today reports on how Linda used the essay to talk about the “institutional barriers against women in art.”
Linda would clarify how in a 2015 interview that the quote also came from an actual conversation she had with a male art dealer. “Afterwards, (he) turned to me and said, ‘Linda, I would love to show women artists, but I can’t find any good ones. Why are there no great women artists?'” she said. “He actually asked me that question…It made me think, because, first of all, it implied that there were no great women artists. Second, because it assumed this was a natural condition. It just lit up my mind,” said Linda.
Nevertheless, some were appalled at the statement without the context. It also loops back to the debate if a designer shirt can truly promote or help in the feminist cause.
Last year, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut collection for Dior featured a shirt that says “We should all be feminists” taken from the title of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book. The shirt became popular among A-list celebrities such as Rihanna and A$AP Rocky.
Photos courtesy of Vogue
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