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dior | the summer 2026 collection | the poetry of codes

 

 

Finding the poetry in decoding, recoding, and reinventing is a delicate balance – and the transformative process of taking the reins of a historic house as creative director is a task that requires humility and audacity, in equal measure. A dance of sorts, between a new expression and the magnitude of the house’s legacy. Having slept on yesterday’s monumental debut, we can safely say: few shows have moved us quite like Jonathan Anderson’s first collection for DIOR.

DIOR SUMMER 2026 COLLECTION
SCENOGRAPHY BY ADRIEN DIRAND

In a pared-down decor, framed by two paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin, models walked through a space inspired by the velvet-lined interiors of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie. The silhouettes revived iconic moments of DIOR tailoring, newly imagined through 19th-century waistcoats, some in Donegal tweeds (an apt nod to Anderson’s Northern Irish roots), paired with regimental neckties. The fun and joy of the boyish characters emerging on the runway was all in the style of these layers. It spoke to the moment we’re living in – for the house of Dior and for culture at large – where the past and present are constantly built and dismantled in response to a shifting world order, one where class, culture, and history collide to create something entirely new.

The now iconic DIOR Book Tote also was seen in a new light, with book covers adoring the shape we’re so familiar with – Saints Pères editions of ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ by Charles Baudelaire and ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote. A crossbody bag was also seen with ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker emblazoned on it. All of them classics, reinvented multiple times. 

The act of rewriting brings with it a sense of agency – and that was the point that Anderson made: individual style, personality, an individual’s take on history, dressing up as a character – these are all elements that constitute a joyous act of freedom and imagination.

The awe-inspiring conceptual pleated shorts, the reversed ties, the boyish silhouettes in capes gave the collection a sense of marvel and imagination – something decidedly whimsical, definitely literary, with a layering of references as only Anderson can master. Volumes were familiar, with his signature take on cloth and its interaction with the body, but the whole collection brought with it something new – and that was what this DIOR collection seemed to herald – change. A new chapter in this industry, and a new page in our understanding of self. 

Discover the collection here. 

photography. Courtesy of DIOR
words. Patrick Clark