Fresh flowers gifted by John Galliano as an inspiration for your first couture collection ever. Jonathan Anderson’s life these days seems to be a flower path; even if it may not be easy to walk through it, he's been doing it gracefully. A couture debut, both for him as creative director of the French Maison and for him in general, Anderson takes the richness, the complexity and the almost inimitable beauty of nature and dresses the Dior women in it, using the only techniques, materials and crafts that could ever replicate such levels of intricacy: the artisanal ones. Blooming in dozens of colours and shapes, a garden has flourished to bring a new air to the French Maison.
All eyes have been on the same man for the past weeks; if you feel like you have seen him everywhere, it is because he has been everywhere. Closing his seasons of debuts and firsts at Dior, haute couture was the final and most important challenge, and to start giving shape to it, Jonathan received a sprout of inspiration that signalled the starting point of what can only be defined as one of the most important moments in a fashion designer's career. John Galliano, one of the most significant names in the history of the maison, the one who created such levels of wonder and fantasy that up until these days are impossible to both forget and recreate, gave a bit of his magic to his successor in the shape of a freshly picked bunch of cyclamen.
The flowers started the journey that ended yesterday on the runway, where cyclamen graced from the invitations delivered to the show attendees to the models walking through the runway. That Anderson likes flowers is no secret. Much remembered are his renditions of the floral world at Loewe, where, from head to toe, and of course in all shapes and mediums, they dressed the bodies in a more surreal and artsy way than they did yesterday, fitting accordingly to the codes and the essence of the universe of each brand. At Dior, they came to life in a more romantic way, a sentimentalism also attached to the emotions involved in the artisanal creation, where every detail is personally taken and guarded by hands and minds that feel and care about it.
Representing not only the beauty but also the fragility and vulnerability that can be paired with haute couture creations, not only in a material way but also in the difficulties of preserving the more organic and analogue ways of creation in times where time, money and technology prepend quantity over quality, the collection is Jonathan's first chance to experiment in a field that allows bringing to the subtle and the precise a level of attention no other sector of the industry can.
Inspired by the bulbous and also organic shape of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramic work — which also overlaps with some silhouettes presented by Anderson previously in The House, specifically his womenswear debut — a graceful and tasteful incorporation of knitted pieces and delicate fabrics that wrap around the body, the couture pieces feel less like rigid relics almost forbidden to touch and more like a warm, natural embrace that is waiting to be worn.
Not to compare, but to find more parallels with Anderson’s previous work in a way that can end up being self-referential, sharing a universe with the flowers, grass and greenery was important in the collection as well. Well remembered are the suits that appear to be growing grass from them at Loewe; here it finds its way through the skirts and the dresses and even takes all the spotlight as fringed bags. Anderson has demonstrated during this debut period how a designer can keep his loyalty to himself, his codes, tastes and inspiration while still adapting and knowing how to carry on the legacy of the brand they are part of. There's no need to sacrifice one for the sake of the other; the point is to find an equilibrium, and he has demonstrated how.
With the flower roof above everyone's heads, John Galliano in attendance for his first show ever as part of the audience, and the whimsical looks that walked down the runway, this all felt like a fairytale that brought back an innocent sense of wonder to a house that had become more literal than lyrical.
