For his second couture collection at Dior, Jonathan Anderson transformed the Musée Rodin gardens into a fern forest this Paris Couture Week. Appointed a year ago as the first designer since Christian Dior to reign over womenswear, menswear and haute couture at once. Today, The Northern Irishman staged Dior FW26/27 Couture inside a pavilion raised among the sculptures, before a star studded front row: Sabrina Carpenter, in white lace and ribboned braids between Anna Wintour and Baz Luhrmann, Pharrell Williams, Priyanka Chopra, Josh O'Connor and Ethel Cain premiering the Maison's new brown gingham. Naomi Watts, Parker Posey, Eileen Gu, Alexa Chung, Rebecca Ferguson and Delphine Arnault, all waving the hand fans the Maison slipped into the invitations. Meanwhile, on the runway, pleats folded flat fabric into sculpture, and ferns bloomed on hems.
Dior FW26/27 Couture Sculpts The Pleat
Anderson dedicated the season to Lynda Benglis, the American artist who knots, folds and pours flat materials into three dimensional sculptures. From sculptural gowns to fluid ensembles, through coats and trousers, the pleat commanded every creation. First, the palette set the mood: whites, greys and blacks, sharpened by flashes of copper, silver, red and apple green. Then the craft took over. A green knit ensemble unfolded in wide mille-feuille pleats, stacked like the pastry they borrow their name from. Nearby, a black coat trailed off into embroidered white ferns, while gathered metallic midi dresses, already an Anderson signature at the Maison, crisped into geometric plissé. Knotted capes stiffened into wearable bas-reliefs, straight from Benglis's playbook. Of course, Anderson raided the archive too. The iconic Bar jacket loosened up with fringed trim and sheer paneling, proof that even the Maison's most sacred code bends under his hand.
A Bride Closes The Show In Dandelions And Cactus Flowers
Beyond the pleats, the garden claimed the collection. Three dimensional petals climbed across gowns, beaded parasols crowned featherweight suiting, and the new brown gingham checkered its way through the tailoring, the very print O'Connor and Cain wore in the front row, runway to wardrobe in a single morning. Then, faithful to couture tradition, a bride sealed the show: a pale strapless column beneath a veil of hand pleated chiffon, trimmed with feathered dandelions and embroidered cactus flowers, an entire garden walking. After the Taylor Swift wedding gown Anderson signed three days earlier, and which the world still waits to glimpse, consider this bride his only comment.
