Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Dior, Schiaparelli
Many designers who work for celebrated couture houses do not mingle with the clients. Karl Lagerfeld never did. He felt his job was to make beautiful dresses for Chanel and that was that. But there was Jonathan Anderson on Monday night in Paris, hours after his triumphant debut as Dior’s latest couturier, posing for pictures with clients (or would-be clients) and talking merch at a cocktail party.
When asked if his parents, who live in Ireland, were present, Anderson laughed and gestured toward the next room. “They’re over there selling things,” he joked. Meanwhile, ten or so young people were clustered around Anderson, waiting as eagerly as puppies to meet him.
The setting was Villa Dior, a grand building with a small garden on the Left Bank that the fashion house uses during the haute couture shows, which are happening this week. Instead of holding client appointments and fittings at its famous Avenue Montaigne salon, Dior does them here. For one-stop shopping, it also shows fine jewelry on a separate floor.
Anderson had personally supervised the displays of clothing and accessories, most in museum-type vitrines, across several rooms, and he chose the flowers, including a bunch of blue delphiniums. In a long case were clutches, as neatly arranged as a Damien Hirst pill case, made from one-of-a-kind antique textiles that Anderson sourced. I heard the cost of one minaudière was around $35,000. Nearby, a pair of evening stilettos perched on a dainty chair. Never during the years of his predecessor, Maria Grazia Chiuri, did Dior offer so much couture bounty.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Anderson, 41, has orchestrated his own triumph, beginning with a captivating collection of clothes inspired by flowers, and the marketing and imagery around that presentation, which was in a tent behind the Musée Rodin, lined with antiqued mirrors and its ceiling covered, stem to stern, with fresh flowers and moss. And why not? Ever since Anderson landed his first big job in fashion, at Loewe, he has proven to be a different kind of creative director, with a curatorial eye and a keen sense of the global public stage.
Photo: WWD/WWD via Getty Images
For his Dior couture debut — indeed his first effort at couture, which is the practice of making clothes by hand for an individual — Brigitte Macron and Rihanna were present along with Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, and Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Anderson asked that the artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, known for his sublime black-and-white images, photograph the clothes. An image of a pleated gown, shaped like a gently curving vessel, appeared in full-page ads on Monday in the New York Times and Le Figaro.
Photo: Courtesy of Dior
And Anderson initiated John Galliano’s return to the house after more than a decade. Galliano was seated next to Anna Wintour, who apparently had a hand in bringing him in. Before the show, Galliano had lunch backstage with Anderson, and Arnault also dropped by. (“He was as cool as a cucumber,” Galliano told me, remarking at Anderson’s lack of stage jitters.) Anderson had already posted on his Instagram account that Galliano had brought him a nosegay of fresh cyclamens during a studio visit late last year and that the offering became an inspiration, “a talisman,” in Anderson’s words. There were other talismans, notably the floral ceiling. In 2014, another predecessor, Raf Simons, created a similarly lush field, and Simons famously walled his couture debut at Dior with blooms, a different color for each room. Meanwhile, the director Luca Guadagnino has been filming Anderson throughout for a documentary.
The collection did its primary job: bring a more youthful and artistic esprit to Dior couture than it had under Chiuri. “For me, it was like, Let’s show what Dior can do,” Anderson said of his intention. The collection was a good balance, I thought, of soft tailoring, such as a split-front jacket in black speckled tweed with a delicate silver-fringed collar worn with black trousers cut on the round for drape, and more adventurous styles, like a pair of minidresses, in black or cream, that were a swirl of dense, sleek knitting, the curled edges finished with tiny feathers. A strapless dress, its teacup skirt split at the sides, was embroidered all over in cyclamen pinks. It looked adorable.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of DiorPhoto: Courtesy of Dior
From top: Photo: Courtesy of DiorPhoto: Courtesy of Dior
Among the most interesting looks were the opening trio of pleated silk-georgette gowns. They have no inner structure. Instead, bands of tulle were ruched (for stiffening) and run through channels around the skirt, giving the dresses a spongy swing. According to Anderson, they were inspired by the pots of his friend, the artist Magdalene Odundo.
Also appealing — and promising in terms of future direction — were styles that consisted of a shrug or short cape, finished with a modest white pleated collar and worn with a miniskirt-and-trouser combination. One look, called “Papillon,” was embroidered with forget-me-nots on the top and cyclamens on the skirt, with a pavé of black feathers on the pants. Of course, the beauty of couture is that you can simply have plain black pants made to go with the embellished mini. The proportions and the colors struck me as having a faint Japanese quality that evoked early Galliano.
Photo: Courtesy of Dior
Accessories included a grass-fringed bag and a clutch in the shape of a neck pillow, based on an actual pillow Christian Dior developed for the beach. And Anderson repurposed 18th-century miniatures with new settings in twisted aluminum and worn as brooches.
There were some clunkers in the lineup, notably a sky-blue silk skirt weirdly bulging in front and a one-shoulder light-blue gown with draping that looked old-fashioned. And while the tailoring was fine, it would have been great to see a display of rigor in suits. Dior’s ateliers are known for that, too.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of DiorPhoto: Courtesy of Dior
From top: Photo: Courtesy of DiorPhoto: Courtesy of Dior
But it was a good start for Anderson, and it was generally playful. His boss was sure happy. “Pour un coup d’essai, c’est un coup de maitre,” Arnault said backstage. In other words, “For a trial run, it’s a masterstroke.”
With Daniel Roseberry showing Schiaparelli on Monday, as well, and Matthieu Blazy making his couture debut at Chanel on Tuesday, the days offered three distinct visions of high fashion. Roseberry was mindful of this temperature change in Paris. As he told me, talking about his new collection — based, in part, on birds — “I want to have fun. I want to do this one for me. And in a season of debuts, I want to put my stake in the ground of what we stand for.”
That is rigor, in form and technique, and a freewheeling imagination. Roseberry said that during a visit to the Sistine Chapel in Rome last October, he was struck by the difference between the paintings on the walls and Michelangelo’s work, 40 years later, on the ceiling. He said that seeing the latter made him want to do a collection where the emotion of making the clothes mattered as much as — if not more than — the results.
That’s a worthy goal. Although it’s hard to call this collection less constructed than some of Roseberry’s previous endeavors, it was, in fact, more stripped back and lighter. He described the sensation of the work as being on “a knife-edge — between anger and joy.” And I think that came across. The opening styles looked aggressive, with a sharp-shouldered classic Schiaparelli jacket embellished with small organza spikes (he called the outfit “Isabella Blowfish,” after the late stylist Issie Blow) and an embroidered, semi-transparent bustier and a black lace jacket, each with a 3-D scorpion tail curling off the back (and bobbing as the models walked). He called them the “Scorpion Sisters.”
From left: Photo: Courtesy of SchiaparelliPhoto: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
From top: Photo: Courtesy of SchiaparelliPhoto: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
Roseberry was clearly having fun — and putting his stake in the ground. Although I wish the lighting in the room had been better, to see the incredible details. Roseberry needed this theatrical element to show the almost fluorescent quality of some of his reds and blues. These were among his most otherworldly designs, in particular two jackets in black velvet, one with a red sfumato effect at the waist and bottom of black velvet trousers. The intense effect was achieved with hand-dyed layers of tulle. Just brilliant.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of SchiaparelliPhoto: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
From top: Photo: Courtesy of SchiaparelliPhoto: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
And, yes, I sensed the spirit of Lee McQueen in the high feathered collars, the jackets pierced front and back with horns, and the snake-head toes of shoes. McQueen adored the animal kingdom, as does Roseberry. It is so close to the creatures of fashion.
Photo: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
