And now, today’s big story…

The worst-kept secret in fashion is secret no longer: on Monday, LVMH finally confirmed that Jonathan Anderson will become creative director of Dior’s men’s and women’s lines, taking over from Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has for years been a target of online peanut gallery ridicule for collections deemed unappealing and boring.

Anderson himself shared the news with a twee little Instagram:

This image already signals a new direction for Dior. And it’s not just the adorable ladybug or the four-leaf clovers — it’s the vibrancy of the color that, for Dior, feels fresh. When I think of Chiuri’s Dior, I think of colorlessness. Especially as her tenure wore on, she leaned into black and white — the colors of her infamous “we should all be feminists” T-shirt, which now retails for $1,050.

Feminism undergirded Chirui’s vision for Dior, and with her departure, LVMH may as well be throwing out the idea that fashion ought to cosplay at being political (though maybe they already did that with their presence at Trump’s inauguration). Anderson previously served as creative director of Loewe for 12 years, growing revenue fivefold, becoming a darling of critics and the entertainment world, memorably dressing stars ranging from Zendaya to Daniel Craig. Unlike Chiuri, his esoteric, art-inspired collections have supported LGBTQ+ causes while eschewing both controversy and political sloganeering.

Chiuri departing Dior is just another sign that the age of “woke” luxury fashion is receding in the rearview mirror. Though she wasn’t the only designer to mix fashion and political statements in the 2010s, those “we should all be feminist” T-shirts were pretty influential! Chiuri included them in her debut show in September 2016, tucked into delicate tulle skirts that probably cost as much as a used car. (Others that read “DIO(R)EVOLUTION” didn’t have quite the same impact.) “We should all be feminists” is the title of an essay by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (also sampled by Beyoncé), who sat front row at Chiuri’s debut show.

To appreciate the impact the shirts had, recall the mood at the time. Fashion’s liberal creatives were optimistic. In less than two months, they hoped (expected!) to see Hillary Clinton elected the first woman president.

Obviously, they were wrong — which heightened the urgency of feminism and any designer or brand willing to promote it. Chiuri’s appointment was groundbreaking because a woman had never held the creative director title at Dior, and the shirts— which cost $710 at the time — seemed like a way of leaning into that.

If Dior hiring a woman creative director for the first time in seventy years feels like a particularly weak version of feminism, well, many said the same about the Ts.