[LIFESTYLE] Paris Fashion Week: Jonathan Anderson opens Pandora's box at Dior

On October 1, Jonathan Anderson unveiled his vision of the Dior woman at the Tuileries Garden. A vision marked by his memories at Loewe and his Northern Irish roots. Detractors can rest assured that, even if the surprise effect was largely spoiled by photos taken here and there on previous red carpets, Dior’s new strongman has achieved the main goal: to make people forget the lifestyle universe of his predecessor, Maria Grazia Chiuri.

The Dior men’s show presented last July at Les Invalides had already revealed some of Jonathan Anderson’s obsessions (houndstooth capes, playing with volumes, denim, excess fabric, etc.), some of which were inherited directly from his twelve years of experience as creative director at Loewe.

As a result, the surprise effect is less obvious than it was for his very first collection in this era of hyper-connectivity. However, the designer had the good idea of bringing some of the muses who inspired him at the Spanish fashion and accessories house, namely Greta Lee, Taylor Russell, and Sophie Wilde.

On the creative side, Jonathan Anderson has clearly succeeded in restoring the image of a great couture house with sophisticated silhouettes and precious fabrics.

As mentioned in our previous article, there are numerous tributes to the founder’s legacy, as well as nods to his Irish roots.

Pandora’s box

The first spectacular thing about this show is clearly the scenography. Here, the guests gather in a circle in a room reminiscent of the Carrousel du Louvre around a gray inverted pyramid-shaped screen.

The guests—including Jisoo from the group Blackpink, singer Rosalia, and actress Jennifer Lawrence—suddenly find themselves plunged into darkness. At the foot of the television pyramid, an authentic square-shaped Dior box opens live.

At that precise moment, archival images of the House of Dior, including those from the Glorious Thirties, contemporary with founder Christian Dior, appear on the screen. This activity suddenly escaping from a box is reminiscent of the jar that Pandora inadvertently opens in Hesiod’s ancient myth, releasing all kinds of evils and calamities. Instead, here the box releases beauty and, more precisely, that subtle balance between “harmony and tension.”

Then, things get out of hand, memories mix and fragment until it feels like a live implosion in a deafening noise with the video imperfection of a glitch effect.

This deluge of images and sounds gives way to silence.

Suddenly, the lights come back on to reveal an inverted pyramid that appears to be reflected in the floor, with a marble effect but jewel-like patterns. The metaphor seems obvious: after Pandora’s box and the patient dive into the House’s archives, we are now truly at the heart of the LVMH group’s jewel, Dior.