The appointment of Jonathan Anderson as Artistic Director for both women’s and men’s fashion at Dior has long been the subject of great expectations and speculation. Now the double function of the Northern Irish designer is officially confirmed – and it marks a historical moment: Anderson is the first creative director since Christian Dior himself, which is responsible for all areas of the legendary French fashion house – including Haute Couture.
Ten collections a year – and that’s not all
An enormous workload also comes with great responsibility. In the future alone, Anderson will design ten collections annually – in addition to the six collections for his own label JW Anderson and the two lines, which he designs in collaboration with Uniqlo. In view of the new challenge and the absence of his brand in the February fashion calendar, many assumed that he would let his work rest at JW Anderson. But as Business of Fashion reports, citing CEO Jenny Galimberti, Anderson remains officially involved in all six collections in his label.
The burden is huge – even for a designer who is known for his tireless work rhythm and creative productivity. Since the foundation of his label in 2008, where LVMH has been in minority stake since 2013, Anderson has hardly taken any breaks.
At the same time, he transformed Loewe, the Spanish fashion house under the umbrella of LVMH, which he took over at the age of 29, from a largely insignificant brand to a fashion player with an estimated annual sales of around two billion US dollars. Even at the end of his term, he no longer seemed to be fully loaded, so he also designed costumes for films by the Italian director Luca Guadagnino, including Challengers and recently queer.
Compared to what has now expected at Dior – a fashion house that has earned an estimated sales of nine billion euros – according to the London Greater Bank HSBC 2023, these tasks appear almost manageable in comparison. It was not for nothing that an unspoken rule was for nothing to date: no: E designer: In the same time women and men’s fashion should be responsible- the workload was too great as a simple path. Former creative director John Galliano, who was responsible for women’s fashion from 1996 to 2011, led the excessive requirements – over 30 collections annually for Dior and his own label – as the cause of his psychological collapse, his drug abuse and his scandal, which was finally scandal.
Anderson “obvious choice” for Dior
Anderson undoubtedly works more and less eccentric than Galliano. However, like his predecessor, he was considered one of the “most creative minds of his generation”, as Bernard Arnault, CEO von LVMH, described him when he was appointed men’s designer in April. Delphine Arnault, CEO von Dior, commented even more enthusiastic in a rare interview with Business of Fashion: he was the “obvious choice” – and “the most talented designer of his generation”. She has known him for 13 or 14 years and particularly emphasized his loyalty – a quality that he had already demonstrated at Loewe. At the same time, such an ambitious and energetic designer as Anderson is inevitably looking for a new challenge.
This challenge has now become a reality. Dior is not only four times as large as Loewe, but also brings responsibility for a much more extensive creative team – in a particularly sensitive phase of the company. The growth has recently slowed down, and the expectations of Anderson could hardly be higher after the industry has experienced one of the longest and most discussed successor regulations of the recent fashion history.
The speculation began with the resignation of Kim Jones as Creative Director of Dior Men and were reinforced by persistent rumors about the farewell to Maria Grazia Chiuri, which shaped the women’s segment for more than a decade. Now this question of personnel has been clarified – even if it also raises new questions: What will Dior look like under Anderson’s management in the future?
A united creative vision – first insights at the end of June
Anderson’s appeal is more than just a creative change – it signals a strategic change of course. For the first time in a long time, Dior is pursuing a uniform, cross -divisional design strategy. In the past, women’s and men’s collections were often stylistically decoupled from each other. “It’s a lot of work,” admits Delphine Arnault. “But we believe that it will make a lot of coherence – in the products, in communication, in the shop windows.”
His start not only heralds a new design era, but also a structural. His vision will probably be clearly different from that of its predecessors: but is based on intensive research. According to Arnault, Anderson spent a lot of time in the dior archives before his first collection. There he not only studied Christian Dior’s work, but also that of his successors: inside. He was particularly fascinated by the heritage of iconic products such as the Lady Dior Bag – and according to Arnault, full creative freedom was granted him to reinterpret these house codes in his own language. It is hardly surprising that Dior grants him this freedom at leather goods: the designer has already proven with the Loewe Puzzle Bag from 2015 that he can design iconic accessories that are both culturally shaped and are commercially successful.
An area in which, despite his extensive experience, he has not yet been able to show any formal expertise, is the Haute Couture. Craftsmanship has always been a central element of his work at Loewe, but Couture demands an even higher level of technical precision and artistic sophistication. However, he receives time for familiarization. Dior has decided to suspend the coming couture season-also because Maria Grazia Chiuri’s last collection, although officially ready-to-wear, included around 20 couture creations.
Accordingly, the creative handwriting of the designer is visible for the first time in his menswear debut collection in June-most likely a strategically chosen start. The launch about men’s fashion allows him a certain distance from the aesthetics of Chiuris and positions his first collection outside the densely clocked women’s fashion calendar. The premiere of his Womenswear is scheduled for the Paris Fashion Week in September – a season in which numerous top -class design changes in houses such as Chanel, Gucci, Balenciaga, Loewe, Bottega Veneta, Versace and Jil Sander take place.
When Anderson presented his first women’s collection for Dior in September, he will have already set a clear statement – and possibly start the most competitive phase of the fashion season with a new self -image and tailwind.