The first of this year’s highly anticipated debuts of buzzy designers at megabrands took place at the most recent Paris Men’s Fashion Week spring/summer 2026, where Jonathan Anderson unveiled his Dior opening chapter. The questions on everyone’s lips: Can lightning strike twice? (Yes.) Will he be able to hit on a winning formula the way he did for Loewe? (Looks positive.) Will it look the same as his Loewe? (Yes and no.) Like with most visual creators, Anderson’s work has its own signifiers. He remains fascinated by the same things—boyhood, for example, and the malleability of identity in that period. But now at a House like Dior, with its impeccable fashion pedigree, he has also found a whole treasure trove of other fascinations to delve into—which includes, but is not limited to, the archives.
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Anderson’s creative flexes here were tempered by his cunning consideration for commercial accessibility—by appeal, if not by price—and those last two words are not dirty words, by the way. For a House of Dior’s size—with revenue in the billions and a product offering that ranges from lipsticks to six-figure couture dresses—its artistic director needs to know how to speak to a wide swath of people while creating a feeling of specialness that warrants luxury prices. In this respect, he succeeded.
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Anderson’s appointment at Dior caused such an industry frenzy because he is the first designer since Monsieur Dior himself to oversee the Maison’s womenswear, menswear and haute couture. At Loewe, part of the reason he was so successful was because he could build a whole new universe and character for the House, imbued with quirk and earthy charm. But Dior is one of those brands that have transcended its founder to evoke something in the current collective consciousness. Think of the brand and a fully formed silhouette comes to mind.
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And so, Anderson confronted head-on the iconography that looms largest—Monsieur Dior’s 1947 New Look. His opening look riffed on the iconic silhouette, but also knocked the stuffing out of it and recontextualised it within the realm of menswear. In his opening look, the New Look’s wasp-waisted Bar jacket was rendered in a weighty Irish tweed; its full, voluptuous skirt transformed into… cargo shorts. Throughout the collection, Anderson borrowed the construction of famous Dior dresses like the Delft, Caprice and La Cigale, but repurposed them on chinos and cargos—everyday items made special when cut in spirals or given jutting-out forms.
A brand’s heritage can be as much a guiding light as it is an anchor. There was none of that weightiness here, though there were plenty of references to bygone eras—not just of Monsieur Dior’s, but of those periods in history he loved so much, like the 18th and 19th centuries. In Anderson’s hands, all were made to feel utterly convincing in a contemporary setting; as easy as jeans and a sweater, of which there were many. The vibe was preppy, but in a French soft-boy way. Ornate frock coats and ceremonial jackets, flowing capes and embroidered waistcoats were shown alongside polo shirts and cable knits, track jackets and chinos.
Anderson is as nifty a stylist as he is a designer, and he has a knack for using something seemingly simple to make old ideas look fresh—cravats and bowties on bare chests, for example; or evening coattails abstracted into fluttering scarves; or aristocratic tailoring worn with fisherman sandals and tube socks. An idea so simple it’s brilliant though no one has thought to do it till now? Putting actual book covers onto Dior Book totes. Suddenly, something we’ve seen countless iterations of gets a new look. There’s merch for every fandom imaginable—why not one for the luxury client who loves their fashion and fiction?
Two lines in the accompanying press notes—and two works in the showspace—illuminated Anderson’s thought process in how he’s approaching his Dior. “On the walls hang two modest yet beautiful paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). At a time when art was often concerned with excess and spectacle, Chardin revered the everyday, trading grandeur for sincerity and empathy.” As this first collection proved, Anderson may have taken on a behemoth job, but he’s still intent on finding and creating beauty out of the little things.
