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“You got a ticket? It’s a war out there,” a fellow attendee of Jonathan Anderson’s debut collection for Dior told me before the show. The invite — a porcelain plate topped with eggs — was the golden ticket to the most-anticipated menswear show of the season. For those who did not receive one, content creator Lyas staged a viewing party in a Paris bar.
The invitation was the culmination of a series of teasers that built up excitement throughout the week. Imagery of medallion chairs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bram Stoker, Lee Radziwill and French football star Kylian Mbappé sprinkled Instagram in the lead up to the show. “It’s a rebus,” fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac says. What was the plate about? Anderson told French fashion journalist Loïc Prigent before the show, which was held at Hôtel National des Invalides, that the plate came from the archives; the eggs were to symbolise the “start of something”.
Undeniably it’s the start of a new era at Dior, with Anderson as the sole creative director of womenswear and men’s. In that way, the house returned to the organisation it had in the days of Christian Dior. The pressure is on. Dior chair and CEO Delphine Arnault is betting big on Anderson by entrusting him with women’s, men’s, accessories and couture, banking on his talent to boost brand desirability, while weathering the luxury slowdown and current global turmoil. Dior sales decreased to €8.7 billion in 2024, from €9.5 billion in 2023, according to HSBC estimates. In the first quarter, sales of LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division, which includes Dior, were down 5 per cent.
It was also high stakes for Anderson. “While at Loewe, he built the house’s legacy. At Dior, he’s following in the footsteps of designers who defined their era, including Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri,” Benjamin Simmenauer, professor at Institut Français de la Mode, says. “He will have to carve out a place for himself among all these illustrious predecessors and assert his own style, while still respecting the house’s codes.”
Simmenauer added that under Hedi Slimane as artistic director of Dior Homme from 2000 to 2007, the house perfectly captured the most contemporary expression of masculinity, the 2000s ephebe, and it’s up to Anderson to pinpoint today’s masculinity, not necessarily aligning with the house’s women’s codes.
The front row was a mix of long-time Dior ambassadors (Robert Pattinson, Rihanna) and new faces for Dior who are transfers from Loewe (Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Luca Guadagnino). Pattinson, O’Connor and Craig were all wearing the new collection. “It’s very New York 1980s,” says Craig about his look that was first unveiled on Mbappé. Roger Federer also attended. Was it because of the On connection? Federer is an investor, and Loewe and On collaborated on capsule collections. The White Lotus’s Sam Nivola was also there, after starring in a short teaser posted on the house’s Instagram, suggesting Anderson will continue working with trending talents like he did at Loewe. Nivola was wearing a knit sweater with little embroideries of roses and a Diorette charm around the neck for a rococo feel. “Monsieur Dior was in love with the era, as he was with British culture, of which echoes persist,” the press release said.
Mia Goth, Sabrina Carpenter and Natalia Vodianova each attended, dressed in Anderson’s Dior women’s, offering a foretaste of what we should expect in October when the designer presents his first womenswear collection for the house, in a season jam-packed with debuts. Carpenter’s look, not only a departure in style for the pop star, was an updated version of the maison founder’s famous New Look.
Anderson’s last Loewe show for SS25 was attended by a number of designers. This time again, creative directors turned up in droves to the show. Guests included Donatella Versace, Chemena Kamali, Pharrell Williams, Julien Dossena, Chitose Abe, Adrian Appiolaza, Kris Van Assche, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Michael Rider, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Glenn Martens, Stefano Pilati, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. “We are all friends of each other these days. We are all supporting one another,” says McCollough, who, alongside Hernandez, succeeded Anderson at Loewe.
“I am coming with a feeling of extreme excitement because it’s so important for his career and for the history of the house. I am excited to watch this historical moment,” Kamali says. He also had the full support of the Arnaults; almost the whole family, including Bernard, were present.
The set was modelled on the interiors of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, “a programmatic act that speaks a language of understatement and poise”, according to the press release. Two masterpieces by Jean Siméon Chardin, one lent by the Louvre Museum, the other one by National Galleries of Scotland, were hanging on the walls. The soundtrack kicked off with Bruce Springsteen in a nod to some of the — somewhat surprisingly — Americana references within the collection’s more casual looks.
But most overwhelmingly, the collection drew inspiration from the 18th century as well as Dior’s heritage. “The dialogue with history and the archive is constant,” Anderson tells Vogue Business, with the collection featuring a series of waistcoats dating from around 1710 to 1865 and reproduced. He continued: “The iconic Delft, Caprice and Cigale couture dresses from the archives were used as a base to shape trousers or jackets. The Delft shorts define the main silhouette, opening the show. Then, there is the Bar jacket, which we made in donegal tweeds, stressing the classic masculinity of the item from which Mr Dior started to create one of his most feminine garments.”
Other touches were reminiscent of his work at Loewe, such as the volumes of the coats and trousers and the sandals. (Anderson brought a number of team members from Loewe to Dior including menswear director Giacomo Tortarolo, while footwear designer Nina Christen, with whom he collaborated at Loewe, is also part of the new chapter.)
Buyers praised the collection’s perfect balance between Anderson’s style and Dior’s heritage.
“The collection is the perfect meeting of the Dior universe and Jonathan Anderson’s,” says Arthur Lemoine, head of buying at Galeries Lafayette. “We could feel all his creativity and energy. There was a clear heritage of Hedi Slimane’s collections at Dior Homme: a certain idea of English youth, with a touch of romanticism.”
“Jonathan exceeded expectations,” Simon Longland, fashion buying director at Harrods, says. “He brought his distinct clarity and ease to Dior, delivering a collection that combined everything we love about his work with everything we look for in Dior: refinement, wearability and quiet confidence. These are clothes to desire, to own and to keep. A powerful new vision of the Dior man: elegant yet relaxed, simple yet special.”
“Dior feels cool again. Jonathan Anderson has answered the question of what Dior menswear stands for on its own terms — without collaborations,” Richard Johnson, chief business officer at LuxExperience, parent company of Mytheresa and recently acquired Yoox Net-a-Porter. “It feels like a warm-up for September/October,” a buyer notes, referring to the unprecedented number of debuts.
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