30 September 2026 |
Jonathan Anderson described his SS27 collection as an “exploration of lightness and watercolours,” with the designer deploying the exceptional skills of the Dior atelier to create clothes that seemed breathlessly light.
“I think it’s about removing the heaviness of heritage from the brand,” said the designer, who said he had looked at things quintessentially Dior in construction but then set about, “building them all out of chiffon.” Anderson’s favourite archive look, a 1952 Cigale dress with its jutting angular hips, was rendered soft and fluid. Tailored jackets were as sheer as veils, and many looks were so weightless, “they could fit into a shoe box,“ said the designer, who found that idea particularly pleasing. Even the jewellery was made of garlands of embroidered chiffon or ultra fine chains.
He took the circular cuts Mr Dior pioneered for his gowns and full skirts, but rendered them short, in lengths for today. “These garments are constructed with ten layers of chiffon, layered on top of each other,” he explained.
Soft shapes were created with drapes and gathers, and Anderson softened many silhouettes with micro pleats. He applied them to fluted shirts, dresses, jackets, and even denim. He especially liked the blurred effect it gave with prints, which reminded him of Gerhard Richter‘s landscapes he admires. “For me, there’s a romantic quality to this. I wanted a romantic vibe.” Pretty, light, optimistic and colourful were his buzz words.
A year into his role as creative director of Dior, Jonathan Anderson is taking stock of everything he’s built so far. Giving an insight into his process he said, “I think for me this whole year was about this arc of trying to explore something, of trying to like rattle the brand to see what falls out of it. Because I think everyone has such a perceived idea of what it should be.” Each collection he’s done in the past 12 months builds a language and design vocabulary he said, of his strategic approach, “So that you don’t take a customer from 0 to 100.”
The SS27 collection cherry picked references from his past collections such the swagged bar jackets of his debut show. Piping is a recurring theme. But Anderson is up for disrupting the codes of pretty dressing. “I always think Dior has this broken aristocracy. There’s something a bit, like, slightly off,” he said. Ideas from his men’s collections, particularly the LA show, found their way onto this women’s collection and the designer said he was thinking about androgynous British model Stella Tennant for metallic jeans and shawl collared satin jackets.
Anderson and Dior CEO Delphine Arnault have been building out the Dior atelier, nearly doubling the artisans working on each collection, and it shows. The level of sophistication is exceptional. Each look was lavished with craft from hand-embroidered edges and to whole looks constructed from petals of chiffon. The checks on a chiffon jacket came from a 1950s Dior men’s piece. “We’re taking swatches from famous Dior garments and re-weaving them,” said the designer. Despite the intense craft and thought in each piece the collection was almost impossibly light. That’s the magic of Dior.
Photography courtesy of Christian Dior.
