Flowers hung from the ceiling, from ears, and from silver chains. Purple orchids fell from shoulders, and embroidered orange flowers donned dresses. Cyclamen graced the mailboxes of invitees before reappearing in the collection itself, crafted in silk. For his first ever couture collection, Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson looked to both the natural world—and the fashion house’s history—for inspiration.
The flower that appeared most throughout Anderson’s Haute Couture spring/summer 2026 collection was the cyclamen, a magenta bloom native to the Mediterranean that’s defined by its upswept petals and peaks from late autumn through early spring. In this context, the flower references a gift—a bunch of cyclamen—that former Dior creative director John Galliano gave to Anderson.
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“Last year, just before my first women’s show for Dior, the first person I wanted to show the collection to was John Galliano,” Anderson wrote on Instagram. “John very kindly came with two posies of cyclamen tied with black silk ribbons and a bag of cakes and sweets from Tesco for the team. [They were] the most beautiful flowers I‘d ever seen.”
In a statement, the Maison described the flowers as “poetic batons of creative continuity.” While Anderson’s entrance into couture at Dior marks an exciting beginning, his homage to the cyclamen—and to flowers more broadly—not only alludes to his regard for his predecessor, but also to the floral foundations of the House of Dior. As the show notes read, “Nature meets artifice and the old welcomes the new.”
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At Dior, flowers function not only as recurring motifs, but as a visual inheritance, rooted in founder Christian Dior’s devotion to gardening. He first developed this passion at his childhood home, Villa Les Rhumbs, in Normandy, where his mother Madeleine tended to an ample rose garden. But, his love for gardening truly bloomed at his beloved country home, Château de La Colle Noire, near Grasse.
Purchased in 1951, the Provençal-style estate, planted with almond trees and roses, became both a hub for Dior’s family and a major source of inspiration for his couture. Only a few years after purchasing this home, he dedicated his spring/summer 1954 collection to his favorite flower, the Lily of the Valley. Three years later, one of his most famous pieces, the Muguet dress, was directly inspired by the bell-shaped flower. (To this day, sprigs of the Lily of the Valley are distributed throughout the House every May 1st.)
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Despite his passing shortly after, in 1957, flowers have resurfaced repeatedly throughout the House’s history. Creative directors often display their own takes on them to pay homage to the Maison’s roots. From Marc Bohan’s graphic floral prints in the spring 1972 couture show to Gianfranco Ferré’s dresses in his spring/summer 1992 collection to the oversized flowers of John Galliano’s fall/winter 2010 couture venue to Raf Simon’s Fall 2012 debut, florals have continued to be paramount at Dior.
It is with Jonathan Anderson’s first couture collection that this floral lineage continues. The cyclamen, passed on from Galliano to Anderson, becomes a living continuation of Dior’s gardens, a reminder that, even as a new guard takes the reins, the Maison’s history is still as relevant as ever.
This article was first seen on ELLE Decor.