27 June 2025 |
Jonathan Anderson’s new era is classic, cultural and elegant with a playful twist.
If there was one debut that defined Paris men’s fashion week, it would be Jonathan Anderson’s inaugural collection at the helm of Dior. The anticipation and speculation ran rampant. What would we see? Would he live up to the expectations? The answer is that he delivered on all accounts, reinventing the house’s codes while nodding to literature and history. From going back to the original font for the logo to diving into the archives, it could have been nostalgic but it was anything but that. Instead Anderson delivered a look into the past, linked to the present, in order to project the future.
The venue was transformed into a gallery reminiscent of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie — a space dedicated to Old Masters. On the walls were two still life paintings by 18th-century French artist Jean Siméon Chardin specially loaned by the Musée du Louvre and the National Galleries of Scotland. In contrast to the setting was a front row stacked with today’s most prominent celebrities from the likes of Rihanna, ASAP Rocky, Robert Pattinson, Danieil Graig, Drew Starkey, Tomorrow x Together, and Mingyu. At a time when discourse takes place online instead of in a museum, plopping these VIPs in a classic setting links past and present neatly.
To further set the tone, guests were presented with a teaser before the show. Starring White Lotus’s Sam Nivola clad a white v-neck sweater dotted with roses, a favorite of Monsieur Dior, it was classic Anderson-style humor — digestible yet audacious. But it was really the first look that set the tone for Anderson’s vision for Dior. With a blazer that directly references Dior’s New Look Bar jacket worn with trousers that had panniers that reflected the mille feuille folds from 1948, it was clear that the past can feel fresh in the present. Androgynous and modern, it was a strong statement that reverberated through the rest of the collection. From there you saw simpler trousers that nodded to the silhouette of La Cigale — wide but easy to wear. Styled with untied shoes, loosed ties, and askew popped collars it transformed formerly rigid silhouettes into casual, insouciant looks.
Anderson showed a fondness for the 18th century and Rococo, notably in the proliferation of waistcoats. Seen in a slew of colors and finished with frogged enclosures and embroideries, they proved to be chameleon-like in the ways they could be styled. “Joy (is) in the art of dressing,” says Dior via the press release. Designed to be a “reconstruction of formality”, you also saw dramatic capes that, like the waistcoats, were given a 2025 twist in the form of loose trousers and sneakers. And being that no Dior collection is complete without accessories, the brand’s Book Tote received a makeover featuring iconic titles like Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. The Lady Dior was also re-imagined by artist Sheila Hicks, covered in a series of silk tassels — perhaps a hint of what’s to come for the women’s collection?
From donegal tweeds to neckties, from the Bar jacket to the tailcoat, Anderson rid archaic notions of dull formality and resurrectedDior with a witty twist. Now, we wait with bated breath for part two, coming this fall.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
