New Dior designer Jonathan Anderson sent out an anticipated show in Paris for the luxury brand’s men’s summer 2026 collection.
The Northern Irish designer, who previously made his mark for his creative, influential designs at Loewe, chose to look to elements of history and art to inform his first Dior collection.
Last month it was announced Anderson would step up at Dior as Creative Director of women’s and haute couture collections, after it was revealed in April he would take on responsibility for the men’s design. The huge responsibility meant all eyes were on the designer, who also has his own label J.W. Anderson, at the show in the grounds of Hôtel des Invalides.
Attended by Rihanna, A$AP Rocky and Daniel Craig, the show took place in a set modeled on the velvet-lined interiors of Berlin’s Gemäldegaleri art museum. On the walls hung two modest yet beautiful paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), on loan from the Louvre. ‘At a time when art was often concerned with excess and spectacle, Chardin revered the everyday, trading grandeur for sincerity and empathy,’ the house show notes explains.
Anderson has previously folded art into his design approach and here it was used in different ways. The notes suggested the collection should recall ‘joy in the art of dressing’ and included elements of historical clothing designs (think waistcoats and frock coats) as well as details pulled from Dior’s archives (the bar jacket) as well as ‘classic tropes of class’, and ‘pieces that have endured the test of time’.
The signature playful exploration of proportion and form was evident in the exaggerated size of some pieces, like giant cargo shorts and baggy jeans, where the modern thinking met those throwback elements.
Like other recently shown men’s collections in Paris, bold colour also turned up in key pieces, like bubble-gum pink and emerald green.
See all the looks from the show:
