With the appointment earlier this year of the first-ever female lead designer at Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri (lately of Valentino), I have noticed real pride in the ranks of the women I know who work at the house. They may not shout it, but they certainly whisper it: Finally! It’s our time – a woman is designing Dior! It only took 70 years.
It may be the ultimate in old-school publishing and fashion, and the last gasp of the media business as we have known it, but for me the arrival of the September issues of the big fashion magazines is still a thrilling moment. I still feel a jolt of excitement when I see them on the newsstand, as if a bell has just been rung and something wonderful is about to commence. Arriving long before the kids are actually back in school, and well before leather jacket weather, the September issues are one of my favorite harbingers of autumn.
