Anderson Juices Up the Vibes for Dior with Spotlight on Hollywood
Designer Jonathan Anderson suggests the decision to stage Dior’s Cruise show in Los Angeles is part of a broader strategy to deepen the label’s presence in cinema.
Like Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, Anderson’s ambition extends beyond being a Parisian couturier to becoming a Hollywood influencer.
“We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,”Anderson said before the blockbuster catwalk event. The show’s inspiration was the Hitchcock caper-noir Stage Fright, for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich.
“There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”
Anderson, 41, born in Northern Ireland and splitting his time between London and Paris since his appointment at Dior, also works as a costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films. He aims to reinvigorate Dior’s relationship with the film industry.
The catwalk wound through the $724m (£535m) brutalist David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), a concrete and glass landmark. The set evoked a blend of an all-American gas station and a Hollywood back lot, featuring vintage Cadillacs and glowing Edward Hopper street lamps. Al Pacino, wearing shades, sat in the front row as the Californian sunset cast a pink glow behind tall palm trees.
The centerpiece was the bar jacket, a Dior classic reimagined with a Hollywood twist as a curving white tuxedo jacket. The collection included fluffy boudoir mules in soft rose pink and silk scarves tightly wound around the neck. The iconic Californian blue jean appeared dramatically distressed with rips accented by glittering silver threads. Anderson’s brief at Dior is to enhance cultural relevance and visual impact without compromising the luxury house’s scale and reach — to energize the brand while maintaining profitability. The show’s glamour incorporated unexpected elements, such as pastel cocktail dresses paired with quirky jeweled snail clutch bags.
Anderson indicated that hosting the show in Los Angeles marks the start of a new strategy to deepen Dior’s engagement with cinema.
“This is part of a bigger picture that will unfold throughout the year, from films that I will do costumes for, or franchises that we will do costume for … it’s a starting point of how the bridge between fashion, commerce, and film could be reimagined,”he explained.
The men’s shirts in the collection were a collaboration with artist Ed Ruscha.
“Ed is LA. He’s such a style icon, and so charismatic,”Anderson said. The shirts featured words and numbers inspired by the gas station motifs in Ruscha’s paintings. Headpieces spelling out “Dior” and “Star,” created by milliner Philip Treacy —
“a fellow Irishman,”Anderson noted — echoed Ruscha’s use of typography.
The show follows Chanel’s near-takeover of Biarritz two weeks prior. According to Rose Coffey, senior foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory, May’s “Cruise” shows have evolved from escapist collections designed for ultra-wealthy clients traveling between climates into a form of experiential marketing.
“Fashion no longer moves in the clearly defined seasonal rhythms it once did, and the traditional boundaries of spring/summer and autumn/winter are not as culturally dominant. Cruise is an opportunity for brands to keep themselves top of mind in the cultural conversation. They are about visibility and storytelling and entertainment.”
Many of this year’s Cruise shows are taking place in the US, with Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Hermès following Dior in the coming weeks. This trend reflects luxury’s focus on the US market, where demand currently outpaces that in Europe and China. High-net-worth potential clients, who value invitations to brand events, constitute a significant portion of the Cruise show audiences.
The lavish aesthetic of Cruise season also aligns with the flashy tone set by the current White House.
“The elephant in the room is the Trump presidency, which is an influence in the sense that America dominates global media right now, so brands want to be there,”Coffey said.
