Jonathan Anderson - Designer, Creative Director of JW Anderson & Christian Dior

[eugenius]

Sadly I am already tired of Dior by JWA. They do too much and too bad. 😞

Including, but not limited to, dressing the wife of the worst, worst, worst, worst, worst, worst, worst, worst, worst, worst person in Amer-I-Cannot history.

 

[style_expert]

Melania Trump’s grey suit worn to the UK’ State Visit was Dior HC by JWA. Suzy Menkes confirmed.

I see it’s confirmed as Dior HC by WWD and The New York Times, but not necessarily as a JWA design.

So far, the previews of what celebs have worn have been posted as custom Dior by JWA but not specifically Couture.
If it were true, that would effectively make Melania the first to debut Dior HC by JWA??
Maybe they can sign her as a Dior ambassador too…

All jokes aside, Arnault family—this is what you get from attending the inauguration.
No exemptions from tariffs at all, just the First Lady decked out mostly in LVMH brands on a state visit (she also wore Vuitton and Loro Piana)

 

[GRCF]

I see it’s confirmed as Dior HC by WWD and The New York Times, but not necessarily as a JWA design.

So far, the previews of what celebs have worn have been posted as custom Dior by JWA but not specifically Couture.
If it were true, that would effectively make Melania the first to debut Dior HC by JWA??
Maybe they can sign her as a Dior ambassador too…

All jokes aside, Arnault family—this is what you get from attending the inauguration.
No exemptions from tariffs at all, just the First Lady decked out mostly in LVMH brands on a state visit (she also wore Vuitton and Loro Piana)

It's interesting to me that, at least Dior, has not shared this on social media. Mathilde always posts when celebrities, royals, politicians wear Dior.

Like you can't attend the inauguration, dress the entire family in your brands, have your kids follow every single member of that family on social media (to be fair just the three eldest do) and then pretend that they are not wearing your stuff. Especially considering that LVMH customers are not going to care about that.

 

[fruitdots]

^This is a custom MGC look from Resort 2025 not JW

And here's the state of this thread in a nutshell. People are ready to go after JWA for garbage made by MGC. It's entirely knee-jerk at this point.

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

To be very honest, Natalie Portman's dress is vile, but didn't feel to me like Jonathan's (neither MGC, if I tell you the truth).

If I am starting to "get" his couture style, I would summarize it in: clumsy.
Strange proportions, simplistic techniques, ornements that are "slapped" onto the gown.

Now, if you ask me, Melania's feels like Jonathan.
We don't know, maybe they won't tell, but the proportions of that jacket, with that wide belly....

Natalie's dress is an abomination, but it was so already in its inception. That horrendous idea was perfectly executed.

Is Jonathan still learning or this is his idea of couture?


Anya's look was excellent, that is for sure.

 

[perhydrol]

As already stated, this pink abomination is a MGC's design, but it only highlights the fact that the execution of the One Dior strategy has been extremely messy. Why are they pushing so much content from Jonathan and then, this picture is released? It creates confusion. Same with all the custom looks, they don't make any sense as in they don't present a coherent vision for the brand, so what's the point of making so many previews?

 

[Kimihiro]

I don’t know if coherence is the answer to what they want Dior to be. I know they want to be legitimate in fashion again thus the whole JWA hiring but I’m not sure it’ll work with the scale they want or that he’s the person for it.

I mean they’re ‘fashion forward’ in the 2000s even if women’s and men’s were the complete opposite of each other. But you know then ‘Dior’ is something.

 

[Creative]

And here's the state of this thread in a nutshell. People are ready to go after JWA for garbage made by MGC. It's entirely knee-jerk at this point.

?

I, as many tfser, was excited about him getting the job. I think it made kinda sense.

But all he’s done so far is garbage and marketing wise it’s all garbage too. Nothing to be excited about.

It’s all been a very poorly orchestrated move. I’m sorry.

 

[yslforever]

?

I, as many tfser, was excited about him getting the job. I think it made kinda sense.

But all he’s done so far is garbage and marketing wise it’s all garbage too. Nothing to be excited about.

It’s all been a very poorly orchestrated move. I’m sorry.

I would separate menswear and womens.
The marketing for the menswear show last June felt fresh to me, some kind or return to Dior Monsieur with more playful and romantic influences, it felt well-thought, coherent, intriguing, to me.
On the other hand, the rollout of the womenswear marketing before a runway show is confusing, those sporadic custom looks without any other visuals or actual collection does not mean a lot.

Blazy at Chanel is not doing it. That's probably the smarter way.

 

[Cocteau Stone]

When it came to the womenswear he should have stuck to one custom and that was it. As we see more of his world for the Dior woman, the aura of what is to come and excitement is waning.

He has a direction, but it’s become incoherent and at odds with what to expect with the Dior woman. And that’s where he’s gotten off the wrong foot. There’s a lack of womanhood and maturity, it’s incredibly infantile. I would expect it from his menswear because he’s always had that touch both at his namesake and Loewe, whereas the women’s started off very strong at Loewe and with gusto. It had something stoic and present that was incredibly confident. Here it’s become the Dior wall flower.

Wonder if this approach is a way to “sell”. A lot is visually and creatively “lowest common denominator” so social media wise it’s easy to see and digest. But this is a couture house at its heart and he’s kind of ripped that out which is unfortunate because for a while he really helped push craft at Loewe.

 

[Grets]

Blazy at Chanel is not doing it. That's probably the smarter way.

I think Blazy keeping his cards close (I think we saw bomber?) is the strategy. Blazy and the Chanel team are watching JWA's Dior laughing (but also learning).

 

[fruitdots]

I would separate menswear and womens.
The marketing for the menswear show last June felt fresh to me, some kind or return to Dior Monsieur with more playful and romantic influences, it felt well-thought, coherent, intriguing, to me.
On the other hand, the rollout of the womenswear marketing before a runway show is confusing, those sporadic custom looks without any other visuals or actual collection does not mean a lot.

Blazy at Chanel is not doing it. That's probably the smarter way.

People in this thread seem to have the idea that JWA is making all of these decisions on his own. I think it's pretty evident that there's an LMVH imperative in play here—they want maximum publicity from celebrity appearances, red carpets, etc, especially as their stock has tumbled in value.

And does anyone really think that JWA had a say in whether Dior would dress Melania Trump or not? Couture clients in general are vile creatures. Sure there are outliers, but when you're dressing the wives of billionaires, you're inevitably confronting blood money. LMVH isn't going to refuse to dress the wife of a Russian oligarch, so why would they say no to Melania? Anyone who has been paying attention would know that Arnault has been courting Trump all year—he doesn't want to get screwed by tariffs, and he's been building factories in the US. In that context, JWA's opinion is a non-factor. He's an employee and if he's told to dress a fascist, it's that or the door.

I suppose that's my point in general. I think a lot of this rollout has been clunky and awkward. I've liked some aspects, and disliked others. But come on, JWA left Loewe in March, and his appointment at Dior was announced in June. Even assuming he began working at Dior prior to his departure from Loewe (likely), he's had relatively little time to take charge of multiple lines, all while needing to produce red carpet looks. And LMVH has undermined him by asking for the latter, IMO, because it has both undercut the eventual surprise of his first womenswear show, and further split his attention. Now he's being torn apart even though he's under the sort of corporate pressure that killed McQueen. That's very distinct from Chanel (though obviously a high pressure job as well), since it is privately owned and not subject to the whims of shareholders. It's not as if Blazy is "smarter" for choosing a different marketing strategy—I don't imagine that option was ever on the table for JWA. My sense is that Blazy has been lucky insofar as the Wertheimers have allowed him more autonomy & shielded him from near-immediate public scrutiny.

Anyway, I think the ideas are there, and in some cases they are landing. I do genuinely think that JWA's reimagining of the Delft dress as cargo shorts is more compelling and successful than anything we saw across MGC's tenure at Dior (look how dull and reductive her "New Junon" dress looks in comparison), and that this bespeaks his seriousness regarding the Dior archive. Yet these things take time—he said as much earlier in the year when he mentioned needing to "absorb" and "reconfigure" Dior's work. So yeah, I'll take some awkward experiments (done under pressure) because what I see is someone trying to think immanently through Dior's silhouettes.

 

[Lola701]

People in this thread seem to have the idea that JWA is making all of these decisions on his own. I think it's pretty evident that there's an LMVH imperative in play here—they want maximum publicity from celebrity appearances, red carpets, etc, especially as their stock has tumbled in value.

But it’s his responsibility. He discuss those strategic image issues with Bialobos and the team. The Ateliers are involved and he validates those decisions.
Dior was in no rush at all to have a full summer of customs looks from JWA.

Those Customs looks won’t have any impact on the sales of Dior as MGC’s is landing in stores.

I know there’s this legend that people at LVMH are so much of masters of everything but they are not.

Delphine wanted him. He wanted the job, they make everything work in order to please him because it will push him to be more invested.

In a way, on paper, the strategy is not so bad: He decided to saturate the celebrity/fashion landscape all summer. In terms of PR, Dior was everywhere all summer.
And they might be happy with it. Having some criticism on TFS, and few accounts on IG won’t hurt Dior. Before JWA’s show, the discussions were about the sweatshops in Italy. Between June and now, people talked about the clothes, the totes and the new creative direction.

But those decisions we are critiquing are his: he decided to dress the cast of Luca’s film. He decided to sign two actresses as brand ambassador and to have them in customs looks. He designed and validated the looks they wore.
He is a creative director of a big brand. He has responsibility, imperative and a great deal of freedom. Just because it’s landing the way they intended is not enough to just say « oh it’s the suits ».

 

[Frederic01]

Is Julia Roberts wearing Dior by JW here or just the tie? Curious to know!


VARIETY

 

[fruitdots]

But it’s his responsibility. He discuss those strategic image issues with Bialobos and the team. The Ateliers are involved and he validates those decisions.
Dior was in no rush at all to have a full summer of customs looks from JWA.

Those Customs looks won’t have any impact on the sales of Dior as MGC’s is landing in stores.

I know there’s this legend that people at LVMH are so much of masters of everything but they are not.

Delphine wanted him. He wanted the job, they make everything work in order to please him because it will push him to be more invested.

In a way, on paper, the strategy is not so bad: He decided to saturate the celebrity/fashion landscape all summer. In terms of PR, Dior was everywhere all summer.
And they might be happy with it. Having some criticism on TFS, and few accounts on IG won’t hurt Dior. Before JWA’s show, the discussions were about the sweatshops in Italy. Between June and now, people talked about the clothes, the totes and the new creative direction.

But those decisions we are critiquing are his: he decided to dress the cast of Luca’s film. He decided to sign two actresses as brand ambassador and to have them in customs looks. He designed and validated the looks they wore.
He is a creative director of a big brand. He has responsibility, imperative and a great deal of freedom. Just because it’s landing the way they intended is not enough to just say « oh it’s the suits ».

I just don't buy this idea that JWA has free-reign. Yeah he has huge control over Dior, but do you really think he could have opted out of the film festival circuit? Could he have simply refused to sign new brand ambassadors? No, of course not. Every other LMVH brand had looks on the Venice red carpet, and they weren't going to pull out old MCG couture after all the fanfare surrounding JWA.

This is why I emphasized the difference between Chanel and Dior—the economic parameters are distinct. The Wertheimers had the luxury of time when it came to finding a new creative director, seeing as Virginie was more or less a placeholder. Now they are giving Blazy a similar luxury. And the key difference there is that they are not subordinated to the whims of shareholders. Delphine may adore JWA, but that doesn't mean she can free him from what are evidently LMVH-wide strategic decisions. So no, I'm not interested in absolving him of responsibility, but I think it's fair to recognize that his decisions have been made under pressures (economic, creative, temporal) of neither his nor Delphine's choosing. We've all seen what happens to Kering and LMVH stock prices when new creative directors are appointed—the market responds! As soon as JWA's move to Dior was announced, stories popped up on financial news sites. The same didn't happen with Blazy and Chanel because Chanel is not publicly traded. And you'd be a fool to think that this very real economic reality doesn't impact the role of a creative director. I don't think it would be wrong to say that the financialization of fashion, and of luxury in general, has been one of the most significant developments in the industry over the past so many decades. That's necessary context here, because it's a key factor in the revolving door of creative directors. From the beginning of their tenure, these designers are tethered to an expectation of continuous growth.

All that is to say, I think (hope) that a lot of what is clumsy and bad so far here will subside as JWA settles into the role and gets a better idea of where he stands in relation to the archives. It seems melodramatic to decide you've given up on a designer's work based on a smattering of red carpet looks or a first menswear show. But it's also symptomatic of the state of fashion now—designers are given less space and time to think, and are often ushered out the door after a few years. That makes for bad and shallow design, especially if the task at hand is comprehension of a complex vocabulary and body of work. You wouldn't expect someone to become a world-class Cézanne scholar in a matter of months, so why jump the gun here?

 

[TurkicMongol]

Is Julia Roberts wearing Dior by JW here or just the tie? Curious to know!

View attachment 1412660
VARIETY

Yes, it is from JWA, but the shirt dress could be easily from Raf's tenure.

 

[jeanclaude]

A white shirt turned into a dress, with a tie...I can´t with such a display of genius creativity and innovation.

 

[TurkicMongol]

Source: red carpet fashion award




A summary of so many womenswear looks preview so far, but zero substance!

 

[Frederic01]

Yes, it is from JWA, but the shirt dress could be easily from Raf's tenure.

Why does this look like something Karl Lagerfeld would wear to bed? I swear he wore something near identical in that documentary Signe Chanel LOL.

 

[style_expert]

I just don't buy this idea that JWA has free-reign. Yeah he has huge control over Dior, but do you really think he could have opted out of the film festival circuit? Could he have simply refused to sign new brand ambassadors? No, of course not. Every other LMVH brand had looks on the Venice red carpet, and they weren't going to pull out old MCG couture after all the fanfare surrounding JWA.

This is why I emphasized the difference between Chanel and Dior—the economic parameters are distinct. The Wertheimers had the luxury of time when it came to finding a new creative director, seeing as Virginie was more or less a placeholder. Now they are giving Blazy a similar luxury. And the key difference there is that they are not subordinated to the whims of shareholders. Delphine may adore JWA, but that doesn't mean she can free him from what are evidently LMVH-wide strategic decisions. So no, I'm not interested in absolving him of responsibility, but I think it's fair to recognize that his decisions have been made under pressures (economic, creative, temporal) of neither his nor Delphine's choosing. We've all seen what happens to Kering and LMVH stock prices when new creative directors are appointed—the market responds! As soon as JWA's move to Dior was announced, stories popped up on financial news sites. The same didn't happen with Blazy and Chanel because Chanel is not publicly traded. And you'd be a fool to think that this very real economic reality doesn't impact the role of a creative director. I don't think it would be wrong to say that the financialization of fashion, and of luxury in general, has been one of the most significant developments in the industry over the past so many decades. That's necessary context here, because it's a key factor in the revolving door of creative directors. From the beginning of their tenure, these designers are tethered to an expectation of continuous growth.

Thank you for giving this relevant context.
While I’ve been disappointed by most of JWA’s preview looks, it’s obvious he’s been absorbed into Dior’s already existing relentless PR machine. At least they’ve finally shuffled their PR execs, because the old playbook — flooding red carpets with random ambassadors and handing out book totes — feels so dated. At Loewe, there was at least some sense of curation about who fit the brand’s universe, even if that balance slipped toward the end of his tenure.

Yes, Dior’s been everywhere this summer with those previews. But to what end? I don’t just blame Dior PR but also the foolish decision to demand custom red carpet looks from a designer who should be laser-focused on one of the most important debut shows of his career. Celebrity stylists played their part too, all jumping on the “custom Dior by JWA” hype train — even when the results didn’t exactly flatter their clients. By October, many of them will have moved on to the next 'fabulous' debut collection anyway.

That’s why the Chanel comparison is so effective. I’m extra curious for Mathieu’s debut precisely because of the lack of previews. Chanel wasn’t saturating the summer (though they still had select events and dressed some people), but that restraint matters. A brand like Chanel doesn’t need to remind the world of its existence every other day with another mediocre red-carpet look. Overexposure may not kill a brand outright, but it steadily erodes the halo and exclusivity, especially if there's no story to tell.

JWA still has the opportunity to create a wonderful Dior, but maybe an as important aspect isn’t about him at all. It’s whether Delphine Arnault can create the right circumstances to succeed. Because while the new Dior is absolutely a challenge for JWA, it’s also the ultimate test case for Delphine.