DIOR AT PARIS FASHION WEEK

By Sara Dal Monte

Paris opened with a behind-the-scenes debut for Jonathan Anderson at Dior. You can sense a skilled hand at work: smart technical choices, seams that trace the body without stiffening it, accessories that lock the look with precision. And yet, for all the craft, a clear through-line didn’t emerge. The talent is there; the compass hasn’t settled on Dior’s true north.

There were moments that landed. Structure stayed light, the body kept its ease, and femininity felt constructed rather than decorated. When the lines stayed clean, Dior edged into a present tense that doesn’t need to shout. That’s where a real conversation with now felt possible: not nostalgia, but memory used as vocabulary.

Then the hats arrived. A few interesting, several gratuitous. A showpiece accessory can be a signature, but when it tries to explain the entire collection it does the opposite: it distracts. It softens the responsibility of the cut and looks like it’s asking for applause the clothes should earn on their own. Noise we don’t need, especially when the rest asks for attention.

What’s missing is a deeper alignment with Dior’s DNA. Not museum-level reverence, but an honest engagement with the codes: a measured waist, a disciplined shoulder, that play of fullness and air that made the house an idea before it became a style. Here, the echo is there, but it stays an echo. I want the point where heritage plugs into 2025 and shifts tempo without turning into a caption.

Ironically, the accessories are the most convincing territory. Bags with crisp geometry, hardware used like punctuation, shoes that straighten the stride and turn it into a line. When the image starts from those accents and the clothes follow, the proposal breathes. The issue is consistency: those moments appear, but they don’t add up to a system.

Overall, it reads as work in progress. The artist’s hand is visible, the appetite for restraint is there, but the show still needs that single directive that binds silhouette, proportion, and memory into one recognizable sentence. Dior doesn’t need a well-made costume; it needs an idea that runs through it.

My take: a competent collection, bright in details, not yet resolved as an identity. If this is the start of a path, fine. But the next step has to pick a lane and defend it. Dior deserves a clear voice. I’m waiting for that.

GALLERY