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Everything you need to know about Maria Grazia Chiuri, the woman who might be Dior's first-ever female creative director

Rumour has it that Christian Dior may be about to appoint the first female creative director in its 60-year history. This afternoon, fashion industry website Business of Fashion reported that the storied Parisian fashion house will confirm the appointment of Maria Grazia Chiuri in the coming weeks. "I understand that it will be announced after the (July) couture show," BoF reports one of its two sources as telling them.

Grazia Chiuri is currently at Valentino where alongside her co-creative director Pier Paolo Piccioli she has ushered in a romantic reimagining of the label. If you've bought shoes or a handbag covered in studs or suddenly desired a fairytale-like, prettily embroidered dress then you have Grazia Chiuri and Piccioli to thank for that.

Her appointment would mark an exciting new chapter in the history of Dior which shot to international fame in the late 1940s and 1950s when founder Christian Dior introduced his era-defining New Look with its instantly recognisable nipped-waist, neat Bar jacket and extravagant bell-skirt. From 1996 to 2011, British designer John Galliano held the reins at Dior creating fantastical, opulent collections inspired by exotic travel and history. He was dismissed following an anti-Semitic attack in a Paris bar just days before he was due to unveil his autumn/winter 2011 collection. After Galliano came Raf Simons whose version of Dior blended a refined tribute to the archive with an elegantly modernist approach. But since Simons resigned three years into the job in October last year, the role has laid vacant.

So if Grazia Chiuri really has landed one of the most important and influential jobs in fashion, what can we expect? Here's everything you need to know about her...

She started out as a men's designer and has always worked with Pier Paolo Piccioli

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Theirs is a long and remarkably harmonious professional relationship. They met while Piccioli was still at fashion college – she is two years older – and have been working together since the late 1980s, when he joined her at Fendi. There they worked closely with the five Fendi sisters, particularly Silvia, with whom they launched the Fendi baguette, a bag that propelled a dynastic business into a global brand in which LVMH eventually acquired a majority stake for some €550 million.

They learnt a lot about ‘working with families’ at Fendi; about experimentation and about turning a venerable fashion name into a corporation. When they joined Fendi, accessories at all houses were an afterthought. By the time they left in 1999 – personally poached by Valentino to cast some magic on his bags – everything had changed. They worked with Valentino himself for nine years and still remember the first pair of shoes they designed for the house – a pair of red sandals with roses. Red sandals in winter. Very Valentino.

She's mastered celebrity red carpet dressing

Grazia Chiuri understands what makes a winning red carpet moment, and you can always rely on Valentino to dominate best-dressed lists during awards season."We are so honoured to see our dresses worn by so many actresses, because it reveals facets of their personality," Chiuri has said to The Hollywood Reporter. "Keira Knightley, Tilda Swinton, the Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher are a constant support of inspiration for our work, as is Gwyneth Paltrow." Her first red carpet moment was when Chloe Sevigny wore Valentino to the Golden Globes in 2010 which she called "the most unforgettable", and she cites Keira Knightley as another recent favourite. "It was touching for us to dress Keira Knightley for the Oscars when she was pregnant with her daughter in two dresses from the Spring 2015 Haute Couture Collection, whose theme was love," she adds.

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