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Fashion Network
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Jonathan Anderson debuts at Dior: Welcome to the New Era
Jonathan Anderson presented his debut collection for Dior behind a famed French monument to its military, Les Invalides, and at the finale it felt very much like a designer marching to glory. See catwalk Think of it as the New Era, rather than the New Look, as the Irishman riffed on Dior's DNA, and many women's wear designs of Monsieur Dior himself, to create a powerful pathbreaking fashion statement. Take Monsieur's autumn 1948 multi-fold Delft dress made in silk faille which Anderson then morphed into multi-leaf white denim cargo shorts that opened the show. Or a superb check wool coat, nipped at the waits but scalloped below the hips, a look Monsieur named Caprice from spring 1948, which led to a great series elephantine men's pants with wraparound features. The Stakhanovite Anderson has clearly been putting long shifts at Dior, mastering the codes, delving into the archives. Playing on another Dior classic, Christian's Autumn 1952 dimpled moiré coat, La Cigale. But taking it forward into the 21st century with some great coats. Plus, his herringbone versions of the house's signature Bar jacket were pretty sensational. Throughout, there was a whole Edwardian feel – with high collars, stocks and knotted bows, albeit worn without shirts, and paired with great Dior grey fracks, albeit paired with faded jeans. Plus, Anderson will surely ignite huge demand for the trim linen summer gilet - in pink or finished with flowers. Many looks anchored by a new suede boxing-meets-trail bootie. He dreamed up one striking new mop bag, but otherwise played with Dior's hit fabric tote, by creating many versions printed with classic novels – from Françoise Sagan's "Bonjour Tristesse" to Bram Stroker's "Dracula". If occasionally erratic – one or two chino and striped shirts looks reminded one that Anderson has made several capsule collections for Uniqlo – it still all felt like a major menswear statement and huge hit. Without question it was the most anticipated debut by a designer at a major house this century. If there was any doubt; look at the fellow designers who showed up: Donatella Versace (for whom he briefly designed Versus), Stefano Pilati, Courrèges ' Nicolas Di Felice, Glenn Martens, Silvia Fendi, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Daniel Roseberry, Christian Louboutin, Chitose Abe, Michael Rider, Julien Dossena, Chemena Kamali, and LVMH regulars or alumni – from Pharrell Williams to Kris Van Assche. Talk about designer gridlock. See catwalk The 40-year-old Northern Irishman takes over at Dior as an already acclaimed star. Having turned Loewe, LVMH's leading Spanish brand, into the hottest show in Paris this past half decade. Jonathan's choice of location respected tradition, seeing it was the same square where his immediate predecessor Kim Jones had staged his final show for Dior in January. There the similarity ended, with not a hint of Kim's style in sight. Though the set design did recall Anderson's debut show at Loewe, which featured precisely poured concrete blocks as seats. At Dior, the audience sat on precise plywood blocks, on a plywood floor, under a high ceiling entirely made of illuminated squares. Even since he began teasing on social media his new era at Dior, it's been a respectful homage to classicism. Just like this collection, even if he also managed to turn the whole codes upside down. Somewhat eccentrically, a pre-show French speaker recounted - at length - exact cuts, darts, shapes and fabrics of Dior looks, which turned out to be indie director and French heartthrob, Louis Garrel reading from the memoir "Dior and I". Garrel, whose mop hair appears have been the inspiration for all the models hairstyle, joined Louvre director Laurence Descartes, Roger Federer, Robert Pattinson, Daniel Craig and Rihanna, in the front row. In teases and in the show, Jonathan also played on Monsieur Dior's great affection for British taste with an opening Instagram post of a blue shirt fabric with a pin for Dior. Putting that online in mid-April six weeks before his appointment was official. Posting all manner of hints from a tape measure curled into a thimble to look like a snail on huge leaf, to an embroidered Louis XIV chair, he personally redesigned. Anderson – who will direct menswear, women's wear and couture at Dior - restored the house's dove gray logo, and replaced the all capital Dior, with just the "D" capitalized. Seen at the entrance to the huge show tent, over a giant illustration of Dior's neo-classical salon on Avenue Montaigne, which witnessed the birth of the house, and the legendary New Look on February 12, 1947. Which segued into two works of fine art – oil paintings by J.B.S. Chardin of a vase full of flowers, or a plate of raspberries – that hung inside the show. Both lent for the show by the Louvre, and much admired by LVMH CEO, and Anderson's ultimate boss, French billionaire, Bernard Arnault, who studied them carefully. As did Jonathan's proud parents, his rugby playing father and one-time captain of the Irish national rugby team Willie, and his elegant schoolteacher mum, Heather. See catwalk Post show, when asked his thoughts on the show, Arnault told 'It was, frankly, magnifique!' Though perhaps the most chatter this fashion sea change inspired by Anderson's idiosyncratic invitation – a ceramic white plate with three ceramic eggs. Like the solid stools, there was a sense of reassurance. Back when Jonathan was a teen growing up in the outskirts of the small town of Magherafelt in County Derry, his first teenage job was gathering eggs from a local farm. 'Next thing you know, we came back home and there was a sign, 'eggs for sale.' Jonathan has always been an incredibly hard worker. He puts his head down and never stops. But he is still the same person we knew when he left Northern Ireland. And we like that,' said his proud dad.
Irish Examiner
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Irish designer Jonathan Anderson showcases new collection for Dior at Paris Fashion Week
Irish designer Jonathan Anderson proposed some new ideas for menswear as he ushered in a new era for Dior at Paris Fashion Week during the spring/summer 2026 menswear shows on Friday. The designer's debut offering for the storied French fashion house was a collision between an 18th-century dandy and a modern man. The collection contained some of Anderson's design hallmarks: he riffed on historical dress, preppiness, and sportswear, while paying homage to the Dior codes. The first model emerged in a tailored blazer in Donegal tweed and oversized cargo shorts, with ruffles protruding from behind. The 'Bar' jacket, as it is known, is a Dior signature. This was Anderson's take. The look was accessorised with a cravat, stripey socks, and fisherman sandals. Rocky and Rihanna arrive for the Dior menswear show. Picture: Marc Piasecki In this collection, Victoriana meets sportswear; military-inspired jackets are thrown over denim shirts; oversized Bermuda shorts have the pomp and ceremony of the 18th-century French court, without feeling like costume. The 40-year-old designer has a penchant for refracting historical dress through a modern lens. If anyone could resurrect the cravat, or even the tie, perhaps it is Anderson, who pushes men to think differently about the parameters of their wardrobes. A skilled interpreter of dress codes, Anderson identified properness and twisted it: there were upturned collars, untucked shirts, jeans with one leg rolled up, while ties were loosened or styled backwards. Almost every look was paired with trainers — which are sure to sell like hotcakes. Even the more polished looks were styled with jeans. That sense of rebellion echoed in the presentation of the juvenile models, who sauntered down the runway to a soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen, with their slouchy posture and their hands thrown in their pockets. Some more casual looks like logoed half-zips and knitwear and wide-leg jeans have instant commercial appeal. At the juncture between past and present, Anderson's proposition for the future was challenging, yet had a realistic slant. American singer Sabrina Carpenter at the Dior menswear show. Picture:If the standing ovation and rapturous applause from guests including Roger Federer, Daniel Craig, and Rihanna, suggested anything, the audience's appetite for new Dior is already insatiable. That the Northern Irish fashion designer would assume one of the most important positions in fashion first circulated as rumour in December. It permeated most corners of the industry in the coming months, especially as Anderson stepped down from his position as artistic director at Loewe. It was confirmed in April, when he succeeded Dior's men's artistic director, Kim Jones, and the prophecy was fulfilled when he replaced the brand's outgoing women's artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, in early June. It is the first time the house has had a single creative director at the helm in over two decades. Anderson's arrival comes at a critical time for Dior. More than a household name, the brand is a global powerhouse, with revenues quadrupling between 2017 and 2023 to €9.5bn However, amid a luxury slowdown, declining demand, especially in China, is clinching profits at big houses from Louis Vuitton to Chanel. With a fresh outlook, Anderson is expected to stimulate momentum for the brand. Despite the enormous task, Anderson is one of the most ambitious talents of his generation. Between 2013 and 2025, Anderson transformed Loewe, a sleepy Spanish leather goods brand with €200m in sales, to one of the foremost luxury brands in the world, with close to €2bn in sales. Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace arriving at the Dior menswear show. Picture Emma da Silva / AFP via Getty Images He achieved these results while designing four collections for his eponymous label, JW Anderson, and two in collaboration with Japanese retailer Uniqlo. Now, Anderson's workload jumps from six to 18 collections per year with the addition of Dior. Many insiders are suggesting he is his generation's Karl Lagerfeld: a prolific creative who designed across Chanel, Fendi, and Karl Lagerfeld at the time of his death in 2019. With the scale of his ambition, it is easy to understand the comparison. Anderson's next outing for Dior will be presented during the spring/summer 2026 womenswear shows at Paris Fashion Week in September. Read More Anna Wintour to step aside as editor of American Vogue
Fashion United
19 hours ago
- Business
- Fashion United
Jonathan Anderson reboots Dior menswear with subtle subversion and commercial savvy
Jonathan Anderson walked on to the Dior stage on Friday with the hardest brief in luxury fashion: reignite a 9.5 billion euro powerhouse whose growth has begun to slow and whose identity, at least on the men's side, has drifted since the Hedi Slimane era. The 40-year-old Northern Irishman is hardly a novice. LVMH took a minority stake in his JW Anderson label in 2013 and, in the same breath, installed him at Loewe, where he built the once-sleepy Spanish brand into a cult enterprise (and created the Puzzle bag in the process). The inevitable next step, Dior, finally materialised this spring after a messy sequence of leaks: a departure from Loewe, an initial appointment to menswear, and, following Maria Grazia Chiuri's exit last month, full control of every Dior line. A marketing breadcrumb trail In the week before the show, Dior's image machine offered clues. American art royalty Jean-Michel Basquiat and socialite Lee Radziwill, both captured by Andy Warhol, floated across mood-board teasers. A shaky Super-8-style film lingered on peonies, a chateau and a wooden canoe adrift on still water. Viewers, like the canoe, were asked to wait. Context: revenue up, momentum down The waiting has had real-world stakes. Dior's turnover quadrupled between 2017 and 2023, yet HSBC flagged a slowdown from Q1 2024, citing consumer resistance perhaps to relentless price hikes and shifting priorites. Delphine Arnault, Dior's chief executive, now talks less about fireworks and more about 'quality and craft'. For Anderson, the unspoken mandate is clear: deliver covetable product, bags, sneakers, ready-to-wear, and a point of view that can translate into sustained demand. Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight The collection: Saltburn meets Warhol On the runway the pressure translated into nonchalance. Shirts half-tucked, collars popped, one trouser leg rolled, looks that recalled the louche decadence of Saltburn spliced with a Warholian downtown shrug. The tailoring, less razor-sharp than Slimane's fabled skinny suit, was offset by playful twists: a vampiric cape, a cable-knit in peony pink, Oscar-Wilde bows adorning the neck, coats in drapey tweeds. Anderson's British eccentricity surfaced in tailcoats fastened with Napoleonic buttons and the ubiquitous look of a chino and polo shirt was reimagined as a nod to aristocratic decay, pleated, loose, and worn with the ease of someone who has never had to try too hard. Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight Were the cargo shorts and polos special? Perhaps not. But in their casual iteration they reset the palette, signalling that everyday wear is once again fair game for high fashion, and, crucially, high turnover. Commercial chess moves Accessories telegraphed intent: a hybrid sneaker-deck shoe, bright book bags, sweaters emblazoned with a refreshed lower-case Dior logo—bait for Gen Z and a lodestar for retail. Denim returned with pocket stitching first introduced by Slimane, proof that Anderson is willing to cannibalise house history where it works. And all this is only the start. By LVMH arithmetic Anderson will produce roughly 18 collections a year across men's, women's, leather goods and his own label, a workload that would fell lesser talents. Yet his track record suggests an ability to inject nuance into the mundane: tweak a heel, pop a collar, ignite a cash register. Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight What the creases say Christian Dior once championed post-war polish; Anderson's wrinkled shirts propose something different. Perhaps dressing up now feels performative, or perhaps life—pandemic, conflict, cost-of-living angst—is simply too short to iron. Either way, Anderson has staked out a fresh clearing in the Dior forest. The real test will be whether this studied casualness converts into queues outside the stores. In a year, the peonies, like the revenue charts, will show whether the house is blooming again. Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight Dior Men's SS26. Credits: ©Launchmetrics/spotlight
Fashion Network
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Anderson teases Dior collection blending literature, sport and Versailles glamour
Dior 's upcoming show is the most anticipated of Paris Men's Fashion Week, and for days, the brand's new creative director, Jonathan Anderson, has been dropping cryptic clues on social media, hinting at what his first collection might reveal. Like a digital Hansel and Gretel trail, the 40-year-old Northern Irish designer has been teasing fashion followers with glimpses of what awaits when the curtain rises on Friday. Even the show invitation — held in the 17th-century grandeur of Les Invalides — has gone viral. He began with Andy Warhol's photographs of the American socialite Lee Radziwill — the sister of Jackie Kennedy — and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both New Yorkers are "for me the epitome of style," he said. While the trail of posts started in the Big Apple, it seemed to be ending at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, particularly in the cutesy hamlet Marie Antoinette had built in the grounds so she could play at being a peasant. There were also snaps of a gilt clock in the Queen's Bedchamber, a Dior ring set in one of the hamlet's apple trees, and a brilliantly witty measuring tape in the shape of a snail perched on a leaf. Tied in knots Anderson also posted two rather endearing videos of French football star Kylian Mbappé putting on a tie and trying — and failing — to knot a dickie bow. "It's not that bad, right?" the Real Madrid star and Dior ambassador asked, before laughing, "It is (that bad)?" Anderson — a lover of literature — also seems to have returned to his homeland for inspiration, with three new versions of the brand's Book Tote bags. The first has "Dracula" in blood-red letters in a nod to Dublin writer Bram Stoker, while the "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" bag pays homage to French novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The enigmatic invitation to the show — a porcelain plate adorned with three eggs — has already gone viral on social media. Anderson's arrival at Dior had been flagged for months after he turned around the rather stuffy Spanish label Loewe, which is also owned by the French luxury giant LVMH. Just weeks after he was named to head Dior Homme, he was also appointed creative director of Dior's women's collections and its haute couture. The last person to have such a free rein at the brand was its founder, Christian Dior. Tricky time With the luxury sector's once bumper profits plummeting, Anderson's appointment is an attempt to renew the fashion house after nine years under the Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri. Anderson, the son of former Irish rugby captain Willie Anderson, trained at the London School of Fashion after starting on the shop floor at a Dublin department store. His first big break was landing a job in Prada 's marketing department before launching his own brand, JW Anderson, in 2008. "I think he is one of the most gifted talents of his generation," said Alice Feillard, men's buyer at Galeries Lafayette, Europe's biggest department store group. "We saw what he achieved at Loewe — a really remarkable and brilliant body of work." "He is one of the most talented and undoubtedly prolific designers of recent years," Adrien Communier, fashion editor for GQ France, told AFP. "There is something childlike yet very intellectual" about his collections, he said, "very cheeky, very bold... and really intriguing." Feillard said bringing together Dior's three lines "makes sense. Dior Homme and Dior Femme are almost two different brands. I think now the real challenge for the brand is to establish a somewhat more coherent identity," she said.
Fashion Network
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Anderson teases Dior collection blending literature, sport and Versailles glamour
Dior 's upcoming show is the most anticipated of Paris Men's Fashion Week, and for days, the brand's new creative director, Jonathan Anderson, has been dropping cryptic clues on social media, hinting at what his first collection might reveal. Like a digital Hansel and Gretel trail, the 40-year-old Northern Irish designer has been teasing fashion followers with glimpses of what awaits when the curtain rises on Friday. Even the show invitation — held in the 17th-century grandeur of Les Invalides — has gone viral. He began with Andy Warhol's photographs of the American socialite Lee Radziwill — the sister of Jackie Kennedy — and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both New Yorkers are "for me the epitome of style," he said. While the trail of posts started in the Big Apple, it seemed to be ending at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, particularly in the cutesy hamlet Marie Antoinette had built in the grounds so she could play at being a peasant. There were also snaps of a gilt clock in the Queen's Bedchamber, a Dior ring set in one of the hamlet's apple trees, and a brilliantly witty measuring tape in the shape of a snail perched on a leaf. Tied in knots Anderson also posted two rather endearing videos of French football star Kylian Mbappé putting on a tie and trying — and failing — to knot a dickie bow. "It's not that bad, right?" the Real Madrid star and Dior ambassador asked, before laughing, "It is (that bad)?" Anderson — a lover of literature — also seems to have returned to his homeland for inspiration, with three new versions of the brand's Book Tote bags. The first has "Dracula" in blood-red letters in a nod to Dublin writer Bram Stoker, while the "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" bag pays homage to French novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The enigmatic invitation to the show — a porcelain plate adorned with three eggs — has already gone viral on social media. Anderson's arrival at Dior had been flagged for months after he turned around the rather stuffy Spanish label Loewe, which is also owned by the French luxury giant LVMH. Just weeks after he was named to head Dior Homme, he was also appointed creative director of Dior's women's collections and its haute couture. The last person to have such a free rein at the brand was its founder, Christian Dior. Tricky time With the luxury sector's once bumper profits plummeting, Anderson's appointment is an attempt to renew the fashion house after nine years under the Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri. Anderson, the son of former Irish rugby captain Willie Anderson, trained at the London School of Fashion after starting on the shop floor at a Dublin department store. His first big break was landing a job in Prada 's marketing department before launching his own brand, JW Anderson, in 2008. "I think he is one of the most gifted talents of his generation," said Alice Feillard, men's buyer at Galeries Lafayette, Europe's biggest department store group. "We saw what he achieved at Loewe — a really remarkable and brilliant body of work." "He is one of the most talented and undoubtedly prolific designers of recent years," Adrien Communier, fashion editor for GQ France, told AFP. "There is something childlike yet very intellectual" about his collections, he said, "very cheeky, very bold... and really intriguing." Feillard said bringing together Dior's three lines "makes sense. Dior Homme and Dior Femme are almost two different brands. I think now the real challenge for the brand is to establish a somewhat more coherent identity," she said.
