OHMYGOSSIP — Natalie Portman has praised Maria Grazia Chiuri for designing garments that “understand” women. The 38-year-old actress – who has been the face of Miss Dior since 2010 – thinks Christian Dior’s first female artistic director, has been a breath of fresh air for the fashion industry because she has created pieces that are for an everyday woman who likes simplicity. She said: “It’s wonderful to have a woman designing for other women, someone who understands us, and knows that maybe we might want to wear a T-shirt with a skirt and flats, or have pockets in our dresses. “If a woman can’t breathe in her dress, what does that mean? It’s the most literal symbol of oppression that you could possibly have – it’s so political.” And Natalie “loves” how beauty can make her feel confident and ready to take on the day. She added: “I love beauty and I love glamour, and they can be part of the sweetness of life in the face of really dark things – and that has great worth.” The ‘Black Swan’ actress also feels “inspired” by Dior’s sister Catherine – who influenced for his first fragrance Miss Dior – because she represented “enormous courage” and was a member of the French Resistance, and then deported to a concentration camp in Germany in 1944. Speaking in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK magazine, Natalie said: “It’s incredible because Catherine was someone of enormous idealism, of enormous courage, of enormous independence. So it was these inner qualities that inspired Christian Dior; and that’s what I aspire to, in my own life.”