Johnathan Anderson's Dior Couture Debut Reassembles Nature, Legacy, and Art

Bodies wear the remains of other bodies: those of nature, legacy, and art. Johnathan Anderson’s debut haute couture collection at Christian Dior is a marriage–quite literally–between the products of the natural world and of the human bodies existing within it.

Nature is repurposed as functional and wearable: petals dangle from the girls’ ears, the leaves of a branch become an umbrella, little ladybugs and ferrets are chained and carried. Flowers grow on the models’ bodies, blending with signifiers of contemporary production and melting them away. Vintage coin purses and tote bags dissolve into trailing silver and fringe. Green purses, seemingly made of strands of grass, mimic the shape of garment bags, nodding to the collection’s production. With their function removed or diluted, these pieces are left to exist as art alone–a testament to the beauty of couture itself. As Christian Dior himself put it: “In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable.”

The motif of the flower is also Anderson’s gesture towards the body of Dior’s legacy, from which each creative director buds a new blossom. In fact, the flora in the collection symbolizes “creative continuity,” Anderson says, gesturing towards the posies of cyclamen tied in black ribbon that John Galliano had given him before his first women’s show at Dior. Galliano was the first person Anderson showed this season’s couture collection to, and these posies illustrate Anderson’s commitment to honoring the great artists that preceded him while simultaneously pushing the house forward. Combining the classic ultra-femininity of Dior, asymmetrical draping and accentuated hips, with Galliano’s softened grunge, and modern layering, Anderson uses couture as “a lens through which” to “examine the present, reassemble it, and imagine it anew.” 

Anderson’s creations don’t simply draw from Dior's past, but assemble elements of modern art as a structural thesis that runs through the collection. He borrows shapes from Magdalene Odundo, Kenyan-born British sculptor, whose art is imbued with the essence of ancient civilizations from her studies of Egyptian, Cycladic, and Aztec civilizations, as well as Kenyan, Yoruba, and Zulu art. Anderson’s accentuated shoulders and structured skirts mimic the contours of her ceramics. His work doesn’t just stand alone, it necessitates that the spectator acknowledge the inter-texts of art, history, and culture that fashion must be created and read alongside. 

As the first creative director tasked with managing the menswear, womenswear, and haute couture collections at Dior, Jonathan Anderson has big shoes to fill. However, he’s donning those heels and slapping posies on them, ushering in a new age at Christian Dior by “demystify(ing) couture and inspire(ing) the next generation to ensure its future.” If there’s one person who loves to see a whimsically grunge couture collection, it's me, and I can’t stop thinking about Anderson’s work. It’s florals for spring, and it’s groundbreaking!