Cruise shows by the Mediterranean have been the norm for so long that we now associate every resort show with sun, sand, and heady relaxation that we feel only summer can give. And now here comes Jonathan Anderson and his quest to turn on ideas. For his debut, it was a reimaging of Dior’s predecessors. With the FW26 collection, it was less about the cold and almost seasonless, focusing on how a collection can fare in daylight. Now, skipping the Mediterranean, the designer has gone to another coast—the West Coast that is—to start Dior’s resort chapter.
Set at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it wouldn’t be an LA show without some of LA’s finest in attendance. Miley Cyrus, Macaulay Culkin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jeff Goldblum, and Sabrina Carpenter were some of the few A-listers in attendance. As they sat, guests were greeted with a screenplay instead of show notes. A draft of pages referencing the upcoming show and Dior’s relationship with cinema.
Beginning the show with aerial shots of LA’s momentum, the black and white grading gave us a taste of what to expect. A Hollywood noir, set in the era of black and white movies, and coincidentally during the era when the first Dior bar jacket was conceived. Spotlighting a billboard with our protagonist, a mysterious woman seemingly on the run, the show began in darkness, among smoke and car headlights. This isn’t sun and sand. This is opulent summer nights, steeped in an alter ego you catch during summer holidays. Models wafting through the smoke and onto the runway is what sets the scene.
Opening looks included a series of drop-waisted dresses treated with garment pleating. Following them were ripped jeans, deconstructed houndstooth blazers, and slip dresses delicately scrunched on one side to reveal natural pleating. Asymmetry that we first noticed at Jacquemus’ Le Palmier made its way here. Singular drop earrings, asymmetrical hemlines, and scarves left loose on one side all pulled focus to the sideways. Necklines and hemlines left plenty for modest dressers to choose as dresses went all the way to the ankle, tops were perched high on the neck, and some coats almost looked like tunics with their length.
The bar jacket got another reinvention. From the micro short versions to the peplum styles we saw last season, the silhouette of the jacket has now been transferred onto trench coats, its hourglass shape a ghost across the models as they walk down with the coat unbuttoned. And from one icon to another, the newspaper print by John Galliano was incorporated into the Dior Bow bag.
Speaking of, bags, like the clothes, were also given the glam treatment. Sequins, mirror work, and ruffled fabric all took over Lady Diors, Saddles, and Cigales. They were made for a spotlight that you get from a street lamp during a night out. The collection also treated the clothes the same. Many looks were layered with sequins, ruffled materials and leathers that moved like liquid under light. In fact, movement was a big idea that played across the collection. Starting from the movement of the woman in the billboard, movement continued through fabric as it was manipulated to sway through pleats, tassels, and ruffles. Feathered shoes carried on the momentum, and so did boa scarves.
Menswear came with another designer reference, this time it’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and her affinity for a slogan. Though not as in your face, or as socio-political, the slogans over button-downs began with a cheeky reference to the Irish show Derry Girls and finished with lettering as design. Headpieces with buzzwords also made the rounds as the clothing stuck to loose suiting and lacquered finishes.
Finishing with Kelly Watch the Stars by Air, the electronic synth synced with the final walk, where every inch of the collection danced with the beat and the upbeat pop melody seuged into our story with our girl on the loose. She’s the new Dior woman; a vigilante, a starlet. Brimmed with mystique, her foggy exterior is questionable, but you can’t deny her style.
