Maddy Rotman.
Jonathan Anderson is unstoppable. Nearly a year has gone by since his landmark appointment as sole Creative Director across womenswear, menswear and haute couture at Dior, and he has already produced a staggering volume of collections. He must’ve discovered a secret twenty-fifth hour in the day at this point. Turning out collection after collection with a velocity that birthed the internet’s favourite meme of him smoking look-at-my-life cigarettes by the Seine, he seems entirely unbothered by the sheer exhaustion of it all. Rather than taking a well-earned nap, his latest trick involved landing on Wilshire Boulevard to pull off Dior Cruise 2027.
Not a surprising setting, really – Anderson has been referencing cinema any chance he could, much like how previous design eras used the iconic Dior Book Tote as a literal canvas for literary and artistic commentary. Every detail of this West Coast takeover screamed ‘silver screen’: down to the show notes formatted entirely as a Hollywood film script, the collection represents a deeply cinematic, meta-textual takeover of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The front row mirrored the theatricality of the runway, packing a heavy VIP lineup of directors and actors into an illusion of LA, built inside LA. The star-studded audience naturally included global brand ambassadors like Jisoo (wearing an archival polka-dot mini) and Anya Taylor-Joy, sitting alongside a newly blonde Miley Cyrus, Greta Lee, Taylor Russell, Macaulay Culkin and Oscar-winner Mikey Madison.
Dior.
Dior.
The cinematic framework traces back to a legendary 1949 ultimatum from Marlene Dietrich, who flatly told Alfred Hitchcock, “No Dior, no Dietrich,” during negotiations for ‘Stage Fright.’ Anderson used this specific film, alongside Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘Les Enfants Terribles,’ as the psychological starting point for a wardrobe obsessed with post-war escapism and what he calls “The Dream Factory.” This film-noir gravity manifested brilliantly in the garment construction, most notably via a Dior Grey wool flannel coat striped with the precise, geometric shadows of Venetian blinds – also a direct visual echo of Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ and classic cinematic suspense.
The collection felt remarkably alive through its texture and collaborative depth. Anderson finally checked off a long-awaited bucket-list creative partnership by tapping milliner Philip Treacy for a series of bespoke headpieces. Treacy reworked a historical technique originally developed for Isabella Blow’s iconic ‘BLOW’ hat, engineering weightless feathers and fine metallic wires into exacting, floating typography. These delicate headbands kinetically spelled out words like ‘Dior’ and ‘Flow’ above the models’ heads. The subversion of the everyday into couture continued through ripped denim jeans intricately embroidered with ultra-fine silver chains that perfectly imitated loose strands of cotton.
The tailoring reached peak theatricality with a show-stopping, dramatic midnight-blue cape. Sweeping the floor with a heavy fringed hemline, the sequin-encrusted, knit-textured cape was paired over a shimmering gold and black metallic tweed suit, catching the California light like a star-filled Hollywood night sky. However, the real jaw-dropper for tailoring nerds was the unexpected resurrection of the Bar Jacket. Instead of treating the 1947 cinched silhouette like a fragile museum relic, Anderson completely loosened up the waist and slouched the shoulders, keeping just a wink of that iconic hip-padding to pay respect to the new look. Slung carelessly over pool-around-your-sneakers trousers and that chain-link denim, these jackets were executed in ultra-soft cashmeres and breezy wools, for a very cool, California attitude.
Dior.
Dior.
Just like his previous Couture collection, flora provided the ultimate visual cadence elsewhere, moving from a buttercup yellow gown adorned with rosettes to a luminous orange dress designed to mimic a sprawling field of Californian poppies. These dramatic silhouettes were quickly balanced by archetypal American shirts created in collaboration with legendary LA artist Ed Ruscha, blending fine art with high street text play across relaxed shirting.
Midway through the carousel, a vibrant red dress, gathered and held at the waist by an abstract flower, crashed through the palette – a direct reference to Christian Dior’s historic habit of dropping a sudden crimson look simply to wake up the audience. Furthering this tactile drama, heavy flower boas swept the runway alongside nautilus-inspired minaudières and brand-new, crescent-shaped Saddle bags treated with high-gloss vintage car paint finishes and miniature motor key charms.
The collection’s cultural crossover had already been cleverly teased prior to the opening chords of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Murder.’ Sabrina Carpenter practically broke the internet by appearing ahead of the show wearing the debut look – that rosette-embellished buttercup yellow dress – giving the world a first glimpse of how Anderson is rewriting the codes of French couture through a sun-drenched, Hollywood lens.
Discover the Dior Cruise 2027 collection here.
photography. courtesy of Maddy Rotman, Dior
words. Gennaro Costanzo
