Jonathan Anderson and the Dawn of a New Dior

Words by Kate Hilditch

Edited by Rachel Hambly and Bailey Tolentino

This year brought a big restructuring of the fashion industry, as almost twenty luxury brands appointed new designers. From Gucci to Chanel, runways are going to look very different  in the coming months, as will the streets and storefronts. Dior made headlines when it entrusted its creative helm to Jonathan Anderson in June of this year, marking not just an administrative change, but also a new chapter for the brand. 

Jonathan Anderson, after his final Loewe show last September. 

Born in Northern Ireland, Anderson first trained as an actor before pursuing fashion at the London College of Fashion. His earlier experience with performance left a lasting mark on his work, being  theatrical without being grandiose, in its narrative and identity. After interning at Prada and working briefly in visual merchandising, he launched his own brand, JW Anderson, in 2008, with a small collection of accessories. Within just a few years, he was one of London’s most exciting voices and designers, known for blurring gender roles long before it became an industry talking point. By 2013, his boundary-pushing creativity caught the eye of LVMH, which appointed him as creative director of Loewe. 

Anderson viewed his two brands as parallel explorations. His namesake label is where he experiments most freely;he uses it as a playground for ideas that break gender boundaries and challenge traditional silhouettes. It’s the space where men wear ruffled skirts and women’s clothing is reimagined with sculptural, almost architectural precision. However, Loewe channeled his conceptual curiosity into something deeply rooted in craft and heritage. What made Anderson’s approach at Loewe so remarkable is the way he treated craft as a form of innovation rather than getting stuck on nostalgia, a path that new designers often tend to wander down. When he launched the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2016 to celebrate artisans from around the world,  the prize was created to highlight artists who use craft to challenge boundaries of material and function, reinforcing his view that craft is an evolving discipline. Under his direction, Loewe’s collections celebrated imperfection and human touch: from handwoven leather, to raw ceramic jewelry, to knits that feel deliberately undone.

A few quintessentially Anderson looks during his tenure at Loewe. 

Now, at Dior, he faces an even larger challenge: uniting heritage, haute couture, and a contemporary culture in one vision. 

Dior’s decision to appoint Anderson as creative director across all its divisions (women's, men’s, and couture) is almost unheard of in modern fashion. Not since Christian Dior himself has one designer shaped the entire creative universe of the house. This consolidation marks a pivotal strategic shift, signaling Dior’s desire for a singular, cohesive narrative across gender and category. 

So, what will Jonathan Anderson’s Dior look like?

The first clues arrived with his Dior Men Summer 2026 collection that launches in Paris in June, his debut under the brand’s name. It was a statement of intent. Models walked through a set that resembled a deconstructed salon, a nod to Christian Dior’s original couture shows. The clothes combined classic bar-jacket tailoring with unexpected twists: tweed cargo shorts, painterly denim, and airy capes. Shoes inflated into soft, swollen forms, bags resembled folded paper sculptures, and embroidered florals melted into abstract brushstrokes.

From structured coats to lavender vests, the collection blurs eras as it fuses 18th-century aristocratic grace with contemporary masculinity. 

Anderson’s arrival at Dior also speaks to the wider transformation of luxury itself. Today’s consumers, particularly younger generations, crave authenticity and are drawn to pieces that move between worlds and genders. Dior has historically represented femininity in its purest form; now, under Anderson, it may welcome fluidity. It’s easy to imagine echoes of JW Anderson’s gender-fluid ethos seeping into Dior’s designs using sculptural drapes, or tailoring that balances structure with softness.

Sculptural bows, pleats, and ethereal lace marks Anderson’s first women’s collection with Dior. 

For Anderson, Dior represents more than prestige. His appointment across all divisions marks a creative consolidation that could reshape how major luxury houses operate. By collapsing the boundaries between men’s and women’s design, between craft and concept, he’s setting a precedent for a new kind of creative leadership. 

At Loewe, he honed his craft. At Dior, he’s poised to shape his legacy. The expectations couldn’t be higher, but if anyone can rise to them, it’s Jonathan Anderson.