Christian Dior’s debut collection for spring 1947, presented on February 12 of that year in the salons of 30 Avenue Montaigne, prompted the following from famed editor Carmel Snow: “My dear Christian, your dresses have such a New Look!” The rest, as we now know, is history.
The novel ensemble in question featured a wide A-line skirt and a “Bar jacket,” which was characterized by a nipped waist, padded and rounded hips, and rounded shoulders. It’s a singular, identifiable perspective on elegance and a defining moment in sartorial history. Close to eight decades later, the “New Look” continues to mark a before and after in fashion as the true signature of the house of Dior—Raf Simons had his own version, Maria Grazia Chiuri examined it in depth during her tenure, and even Kim Jones, who designed the house’s menswear collections from 2018 to earlier this year, riffed on it himself. Jonathan Anderson will surely give it his own spin at some point. Such is the power of a brand icon.
Yet while Monsieur Dior’s womenswear has left an indelible mark on fashion, the house’s menswear has had less of a defining profile. For starters, it’s changed its name almost as many times as it’s had designers: From Christian Dior Monsieur to Dior Homme to Dior Men. Which doesn’t mean it has not had an impact: The true power of Dior menswear has been to exist as a sort of creative lab nested within one of fashion’s premiere labels. The common denominator of its designers has been to challenge and rethink the sartorial status quo for men in the same spirit as Monsieur Dior’s “New Look.”
Christian Dior is credited in history for the famed silhouette of his first collection, but he is not always recognized for the way in which his business-minded ventures have helped shape the industry today. Dior launched fragrances, satellite offices (New York in 1948, famously), a footwear line designed by Roger Vivier (1953), and even his own Little Dictionary of Fashion (1954). He may not have seen his label expand into ready-to-wear with Miss Dior or childrenswear with Baby Dior, both in 1967, nor menswear later that decade; Dior died in 1957. But his influence has remained. With Jonathan Anderson ascending to the role of sole creative director of Christian Dior with his debut menswear show on Friday, June 27, we are revisiting the history of Dior’s menswear to trace its impact.
1969: Christian Dior Monsieur
Christian Dior died of a heart attack in Italy in October of 1957. Yves Saint Laurent, his first assistant since 1955, was appointed creative director of the house per his wishes. The tenure was short-lived. Marc Bohan, a designer for Jean Patou who joined Dior in 1958 as creative director of the house’s London subsidiary, succeeded Saint Laurent as creative director. Bohan is Dior’s longest-serving creative director, clocking in at almost 30 years, His signature “Slim look” became as omnipresent as the New Look in its time.
Dior’s first men’s fragrance, “Eau Sauvage,” was released in 1966, and Bohan launched Christian Dior Monsieur, the house’s first official men’s line, in 1969. The first collection was “Boutique Monsieur” for the spring-summer 1970 season. The line was subsequently designed by Christian Benais and then Gérard Penneroux, and never again overseen by the same creative director as the women’s until today with Anderson’s appointment.
1983
Dominique Morlotti took the reins for Christian Dior Monsieur in 1983. Morlotti had been artistic director of menswear at Pierre Balmain from 1979 to 1983, joining Dior Monsieur for nine years prior to becoming artistic director for womenswear and menswear at Lanvin in 1992. (He designed the former until 1995 and the latter until 2001.) You can see videos of his Dior menswear collections here.
Bernard Arnault came into the picture when he and his investment group assumed control of Christian Dior in 1984.
1992
Patrick Lavoix became the creative director of Christian Dior Monsieur three years after the arrival of Gianfranco Ferré as head of womenswear. John Galliano would arrive in 1996.
2000: The Dior Homme Years
Hedi Slimane replaced Lavoix, changing the name of the line from Christian Dior Monsieur to Dior Homme. Slimane had been the artistic director of menswear at Yves Saint Laurent, first having been hired by Pierre Bergé in 1996 as men’s ready-to-wear director. Following his final collection at YSL, which launched his signature über skinny Slimane silhouette, he would revolutionize menswear with his tenure at Dior. Slimane’s Dior Homme jeans from his fall 2005 collection, in particular, remain iconic and a true grail for menswear aficionados. Their slim legs helped launch the “skinny” cut phenomenon. Karl Lagerfeld, for one, was so famously beguiled by Slimane’s slim-cut suits for Dior Homme that he decided to lose weight to fit into them.
Slimane left Dior Homme in 2007. He is the first menswear designer to receive the CFDA Award for International Designer, which was presented to him by David Bowie. “Slimane made the label a byword for a look as impactfully new in its own way as Christian’s 1947 original,” wrote Tim Blanks of Slimane’s Dior Homme for Style.com, now Vogue Runway.
2007
Kris Van Assche, the Belgian designer, had the impossible task of following Slimane’s tenure at Dior Homme, though he managed to win over critics in time with his softer approach to elegance. Each of his runway shows for Dior Homme opened with a suit, and his signature was a looser, more democratic fit, compared with Slimane’ slim-cut style.
At his swansong show, for fall of 2018, Van Assche worked with a designer from the Christian Dior womenswear atelier to adapt the Dior tailoring of the late ’40s and early ’50s for menswear. “I wanted to make it very body-conscious. With streetwear, more or less everything has become blurred, loose,” he told Sarah Mower at the time. Indeed, Van Asche had the somewhat thankless task of ushering Dior Homme through the era when streetwear was upending the fashion scene and largely making tailoring irrelevant. He went on to head up Berluti.
2018: Dior Men
Kim Jones replaced Van Assche as creative director of men’s collections at Dior. Jones came from a successful and era-defining run at Louis Vuitton, where he worked first under Marc Jacobs as designer for the house’s men’s line and eventually alongside Nicolas Ghesquière, who still designs Vuitton’s womenswear, as artistic director of menswear.
At Vuitton, Jones famously launched the ultimate menswear hype collaboration with Supreme, bridging the gap between luxury fashion and streetwear. He renamed the brand Dior Men, the anglicism a symbol of his global aspirations, and took his collections for the house everywhere from Miami and Tokyo to the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt. “I’d call it romantic, rather than feminine,” he said of his debut collection for spring 2019. Indeed, his Dior was not just softer but brighter and more opulent. There was an air of sophistication and exuberance to Jones’s hand that helped recontextualize menswear, and change the way celebrities dressed for the red carpet.
Jones’s clever and inventive tailoring, especially his draped lapels and silk trains, gave Dior Men a seductive androgynous look. He consistently and thoughtfully referenced Monsieur Dior’s couture archive, bridging the gap between Dior and Dior Men—and, in a way, priming the stage for Anderson’s eventual takeover. His goodbye show for fall 2025 was the standout collection of the season. “Jones has been known as a leading force who brought the language of streetwear to luxury fashion and brought a new generation’s taste to the runway,” wrote Sarah Mower.
2025: The Jonathan Anderson Era
After much speculation and abundant industry chatter, Jonathan Anderson was confirmed to be designing the spring 2026 Dior menswear collection in April of this year by Bernard Arnault. The announcement that Anderson would become the head of creation for Dior, across men’s and women’s, couture and accessories came earlier this month after Maria Grazia Chiuri’s farewell show in Rome. His debut show is scheduled for June 27 at 2:30 p.m. Paris time. In anticipation, Anderson shared two images, one of Jean-Michel Basquiat and another of Lee Radziwill, both taken by Andy Warhol, which the designer said he kept returning to as he sees them both as “the epitome of style.”
