What can we expect from Jonathan Anderson’s Dior?

When it was announced that Maria Grazia Chiuri would be exiting her role as creative director of Dior’s womenswear and haute couture collections last week – following an emotive Cruise show in her home city of Rome – the writing was all but on the wall. After months of fervent speculation, it was confirmed this morning that Jonathan Anderson would head up the Parisian house’s womenswear, menswear and couture collections – an unprecedented appointment which sees him take near-total creative control of Dior (he was announced as menswear creative director in April).

Indeed, it is the first time in Dior’s 79-year history that a single figure has overseen the house’s womenswear and menswear offerings. The men’s line was first introduced during Marc Bohan’s tenure in the 1980s as Dior Monsieur, though grew to prominence under Hedi Slimane in the early 2000s. Kris Van Assche would follow, before Kim Jones – Anderson’s predecessor – took over ‘Dior Men’ in the summer of 2018. Slimane, Assche and Jones all worked distinctly from their respective womenswear creative directors, while Anderson will oversee the various arms of the business as a singular creative identity – a way of working he is familiar, having led both the men’s and women’s collections of Loewe, where he was previously creative director for 11 years.

Jonathan Anderson’s Dior: what to expect

‘It is a great honour to join the house of Dior as creative director of both women’s and men’s collections. I have always been inspired by the rich history of this house, its depth, and empathy,’ said Anderson in a statement this morning. ‘I look forward to working alongside its legendary ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story.’

With his appointment comes the inevitable question of what we can expect from Anderson’s Dior. At Loewe, he proved a masterful creative director, not only in terms of his collections – which moved from an early exaltation of craft towards the surrealism, and later reductionism, of his more recent work – but in his establishment of a rich, cultural brand which extended far beyond fashion. Memorably, he introduced the yearly Loewe Craft Prize, which awarded artisanal creators from around the world in a high-profile ceremony, held presentations each year at Salone del Mobile, reimagining chairs, lamps and baskets, and established a dedicated and eclectic coterie of celebrity followers, who also appeared in the house’s campaigns (during his time at the house, he would also collaborate with Luca Guadagnino on the costumes for Challengers and Queer under his own name).

‘While reflecting on the last 11 years, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by people with the imagination, the skills, the tenacity and the resourcefulness to find a way to say “yes” to all my wildly ambitious ideas,’ he said when he left Loewe. We can expect such big ideas at Dior from the ambitious Northern Ireland-born designer, who began his eponymous label JW Anderson in 2008 before taking over Loewe in 2013 and transforming the fortunes of a then sleepy brand in the LVMH roster (sales purportedly went from €200 million to around €1.5 billion).

At Dior, he has a different challenge: the house is already a behemoth of fashion with a name recognition which extends far beyond the industry (for comparison, Loewe has 6.5 million followers on Instagram; Dior has close to 50 million). It also has thriving beauty, make-up, jewellery and home décor lines – among several other arms of the business – which Anderson will work alongside to shape the vision of the house. It is a task he will no doubt relish. ‘I think I need to find a new way to break something,’ he told the New Yorker in March, just prior to his confirmation as creative director of Dior Men’s. ‘I’ve built something – either I re-break it and rebuild it or someone else re-breaks and rebuilds it. I think I need to get outside of my comfort zone again and be challenged by aesthetics I’m not used to.’

So far, he has only offered the briefest glimpses of his vision for Dior, via his personal Instagram, a much-favoured means of communication from the designer. The first, just after the Dior Men announcement, was a photograph of a piece of striped cotton – reminiscent of a classic men’s shirt – with a Dior label pinned onto it. The second, posted today, is of a series of stitched leather four-leaf clovers, on which a tiny ladybug sits. The latter suggests a possible return to the more whimsical side of Loewe – animals were often employed as motifs on leather charms, or appeared on bags and accessories – though also seemed a nod to Christian Dior himself, who was deeply superstitious, obsessed with symbols of luck and chance (the four-leaf clover also seems a wink to Anderson’s own Irish roots).

We also know the extent of the task: as it stands, Anderson will be creating 10 collections a year for the house (four women’s collections, four men’s, and two couture), though his forebears Chiuri and Jones also created other limited-edition collections and collaborations, so it could be more. He will also be continuing his eponymous London-based label JW Anderson, though he has teased on Instagram a ‘new start’ for the brand, including a renovation of the brand’s flagship store in London’s Soho.

In an interview with Business of Fashion this morning, Dior's CEO Delphine Arnault confirmed that the house will sit out the haute couture shows this July (another unprecendented move, though Chiuri did show a series of haute couture looks during the show in Rome, which will likely be presented to clients as this season’s couture offering). ‘He’s very in tune with his generation. He’s very connected, especially with young people. He speaks to a wide audience,’ she said. ‘He’s passionate about craft, about art – and he’s proven that at Loewe. I think he’s also going to surprise you, and everyone… and even me, maybe! I can’t say too much about what he’s going to do, but I think his vision, his passion for craft, and also for leather goods, is going to be something very exciting in the years to come.’

In terms of leather goods, Loewe’s Puzzle bag – which celebrates ten years with a Harrods pop-up this month – was perhaps one element of Anderson’s oeuvre which impressed Arnault, a perennial fashion accessory which continues to be ubiquitous a decade on. It is symbolic of his thoughtful, oftentimes esoteric approach to design: ‘It was about deconstructing a conventional bag to create a flat object with a tridimensional function,’ he said of the Puzzle’s origami-like structure at the time. ‘I set out to find a new way of building a bag, fundamentally questioning its structure.’ Dior will be hoping for such a bag to add to its already successful roster.

The good news is, we don't have long to wait. Anderson has confirmed that his debut for the house will take place during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris later this month. He will show his collection – at an as-yet undisclosed location – on the afternoon of Friday 27 June. The world will be watching. ‘Jonathan Anderson is one of the greatest creative talents of his generation,’ says Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, Dior’s parent company. ‘His incomparable artistic signature will be a crucial asset in writing the next chapter of the history of the house of Dior.’

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