Jonathan Anderson presented his first Cruise show since being appointed Creative Director of womenswear and menswear at Dior last year.
The Cruise show is always an important moment for a mega brand because you’re allowed a stronger and more visible voice, and you can get your vision amplified since no other shows happen the day before or after. It’s a big deal. Commercially.
Los Angeles was Dior’s choice for the big premiere and what a setup they had. The show took place during the middle of the sunset golden hour, under the wavy arch of the recently opened-up Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), designed by Peter Zumthor after a two-decade transformation.
The show space had shiny hidden baby pink and red Cadillacs in dark, smoky corners, palm trees swaying against that famous LA light and there was a megaphone blasting “silence, ready to film”.
You had the usual suspects of celebrities: Jisoo from Blackpink, Miley Cyrus, Maud Apatow and Anya Taylor-Joy to name a few, but the ones that felt very Dior were the new kids on the block in the influence area such as the cinema interviewer Thomas Duke, the wellness guru (he’s so much more than that but I’m not sure how to qualify him) Jay Shetty and… Al Pacino. Some brands just pick the big numbers and it all feels out of place, this crew felt curated, kind of cool each in their own way.
I’ve always been a great admirer of Jonathan Anderson’s brain, this multi-compartmented way of mixing art references, Marlène Dietrich quotes, ladybird charms and somehow a very approachable sense of fashion and styling. The couture show last season was an extraordinary moment of art and I really, really wanted this Cruise show to be the beginning of a feminine journey and Dior delivered.
The three opening dresses were flowy, airy, colourful and then bam, came Mica Argañaraz in look 4, in the epitome of what Dior under Jonathan Anderson is: the fringed metallic reworked T-bar jacket, the visible collarbones, the bashed-up denim that is actually a work of art made of frayed denim mixed with metal strands, the beautiful feminine globe earrings and the hair & makeup that was present enough to be noted, in a good way. Loose hair, glittery eyes.
It’s casual, but not enough to look like you don’t know exactly who you are nor where you’re going. I like to think of women embodying different characters when I see runway shows, and the Dior women felt for the first time much more relaxed & comfortable, with nothing much to prove to anyone.
The tailoring (including the coats) was particularly strong because it wasn’t too literal, too masculine, it had a hint of sexiness, like the charcoal grey suit with an hourglass waist or the sheer high-neck shirt with flower-like pompoms.
A division is slowly happening in the fashion industry: imagine a line where above the line is the savoir-faire luxury category and below the line is the fashion category. A couple of years ago, you wanted to be in the fashion category because it meant that you could sell thousands of bags and accessories without anyone thinking anything of it.
Nowadays, customers are rethinking the way they shop and what they truly want. And what I do know is that anyone with €3,000 to spend would rather invest it in something that conveys a sense of true luxury, belonging and craftsmanship, rather than something that feels overly marketed and somehow cheap.
This Cruise show is way, way above the line.
