Jonathan Anderson Touches Grass for His Dior Couture Debut
Jonathan Anderson has done many things: break out with his own whimsical, quintessentially London-chic label, reboot the Spanish house of Loewe with covetable accessories and art collaborations, and design diffusion lines for everyone from Uniqlo to Topshop. But he has never before ventured into haute couture. Today in Paris, that changed. The designer—who took over the house of Dior last year—now has one of the world’s premier ateliers at his beck and call.
Anderson has described it as a laboratory, but he might be approaching it more like a greenhouse. Today at the Musée Rodin, which played host to his spring 2026 couture show, moss and cyclamens crowded the ceiling and Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna sat front row. (The cyclamens were a tribute to John Galliano, who brought Anderson the blooms while he was working on the collection.)
An introductory video depicted the house’s petites mains plying their trade, devoting attention to the mannequins, pins, scissors, and other workaday props that are usually overlooked. One explained the concept of “flou,” or the use of airy, ethereal fabrics, which turned out to be central to this collection. Ceramicist Magdalene Odundo spoke about the centrality of the body to her work, which was one of the designer’s touchstones this season. Anderson has long been an admirer of craft, but it felt like he was doubling down on all things analog, reminding us of the prosaic building blocks that go into making otherworldly runway creations.
As the strains of Vivaldi signaled the opening of the show, that inkling turned out to be correct. Anderson structured the collection as a wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, and his curiosity was truly boundless. The collection drew from organic and natural forms when it came to both texture and shape—from grassy coats to mollusk-like spiral constructions, or skirts that resembled bulbs. Each look incorporated flowers or plants in some way: as brooches and earrings made from silk, in the form of a palm umbrella, or covering shoes. Ladybug miniaudières and jewelry made from fossils and meteorites rounded out the nature inspiration.
Mona Tougaard closing the Dior spring 2026 couture show.
Though his collection lived in the hothouse, that didn’t mean that the designer left fashion history behind. He included clutches made from upcycled 18th-century fabric—he has a well-known affection for the time period, which has shown up in his Stingray hat and historically accurate waistcoats. A pale blue silk you might recognize from Jessie Buckley’s Golden Globes look recurred throughout the collection, adding a richness to the proceedings. And Mona Tougaard, as the bride, ended the collection on a supremely hopeful note.
Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s Fashion Features Director and the author of the book Dress Code, which was selected as one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year. Her writing has previously appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W, New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Condé Nast Traveler.