"I've never been under so much pressure. Before, loving fashion was fashionable. Now, destroying fashion is fashionable," Anderson admitted. But according to the designer, everyone who has ever entered this house has had to face noise and scepticism, from Saint Laurent to Galliano.

On the catwalk, a four-minute cinematic film opened the debut of DGST Jonathan Anderson. Master documentary editor Adam Curtis cut together archive Dior show moments with 60s B-movies and Hitchcock Psycho, creating a continuous flash, capturing everything in a shoebox placed neatly under an upside-down pyramid screen. The image seemed to be a metaphor for the designer&rsquo;s mood: both honouring his predecessors, from Christian Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri to John Galliano, but at the same time wanting to break away from the past to write his own chapter. The film acted as a thread connecting all Dior chapters under a single definition of beauty - &ldquo;gentle, quiet, suggestive&rdquo;. It was also Anderson's way of reminding the audience, and the millions of fans watching the livestream, of Dior's founding principle: to liberate women through fashion, while still maintaining its dreamy quality, from the waist-cinching blazer in the New Look in 1947 to the slogan tee "We Should All Be Feminists" in 2016.

A scream rang out, the film closed, and Anderson&#39;s first runway as Dior&#39;s creative director opened!

The stage lights came on, the first model stepped out. Anderson likened the 74 looks to roles on the stage of life, recalling the famous opening line of As You Like It: &ldquo;All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.&rdquo; The designer presented the vision revealed in the first womenswear campaign: soft, feminine but mature enough to create the image of the modern woman. And as mentioned, Dior is not lacking in romantic elements, which can be imagined this season: French military hats paired with denim mini skirts reminiscent of Galliano's "pirates"; classic 18th-century silhouettes evoked by Byronic verses. Or maybe more playful with bow ties twisted into shirts like tree roots; feathers placed on the toes of shoes instead of on hats; tuxedo T-shirts mixed with sweat sets. Classic bar jackets shortened to the waist, paired with pleated mini skirts.

Still Dior - Still Anderson&#39;s game!

The bell-shaped skirt has long been Anderson&rsquo;s signature. In this collection, that shape becomes the main motif, connecting his personal mark with the dramatic spirit inspired by the past that has been in Dior&rsquo;s DNA since its founding. This is evident in a series of designs such as a peplum blazer paired with a fringed denim miniskirt; a pleated chino skirt reminiscent of the Dior menswear Spring 2026 debut; a see-through robe de style worn over a nude bodysuit; or a loose-fitting caban coat.
Origami hats by longtime Galliano collaborator Stephen Jones appeared in about a third of the looks, harking back to late 1990s collections. Meanwhile, the rose-toed pumps were Anderson&rsquo;s Dior take on Loewe&rsquo;s iconic anthurium pumps.

Anderson sees the Dior legacy not as a template to be repeated, but as a new beginning to expand the imagination, to take an everyday tool to new heights. So, as mentioned, we have the appearance of the tri-pointed hat reminiscent of a knight with a white blouse, or the bubble-hem floral dress with a bow at the back. Even for customers who have never been to Dior, the oversized floral mules or the clustered silk chain-strap bag become an irresistible invitation to enter the new world of Dior.
&ldquo;Women, intuitively, understand that I not only make them more beautiful, but also happier.&rdquo;
This connection to the past gives Anderson&rsquo;s debut added weight. In a fashion landscape that has been rife with &ldquo;chair changes&rdquo; from Bottega to Gucci, where attention has sometimes been focused on personnel rather than design, the collection makes one thing clear: creative direction not only repositions the brand but also affirms the image of the Dior woman as the centre, where beauty is linked to sincerity and sustainability.

Dior SS26: Jonathan Anderson’s New Era

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