Jonathan Anderson’s highly anticipated Dior womenswear debut has arrived, and it left me not just confused, but genuinely perplexed. It is, without doubt, a peculiar collection – one that will likely puzzle former Maria Grazia Chiuri clients. Anderson challenged the very perception of what Dior represents today, moving in multiple directions at once: blending the high (the brand’s couture savoir-faire) with the low (unexpected, intentionally blunt-looking flannels), while contextually engaging with Dior’s many past designers – yet keeping the approach far less conceptual than at Loewe. Backstage, he insisted this collection was simply about clothes.
The juxtapositions were striking: an origami-shaped hat, a pleated lace high-neck blouse (visually nodding to Yves Saint Laurent’s work for the maison), cargo-like balloon pants, and flower-shaped pumps – all colliding into an ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’ overdose. But that collision is precisely Anderson’s point: a shock factor that, in retrospect, often feels uncannily right.
The seemingly levitating gowns with inflated bows? Undeniably lovely, especially in motion. But a khaki denim shirt paired with a pastel pink mini skirt a moment later? Awkward, jarringly out of place. And yet, perhaps that very sense of ‘out-of-place-ness’ is Anderson’s true power at Dior.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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