Inside the Mind of Dior Creative Director Jonathan Anderson: How His Imagination Thrived at LOEWE
/Jonathan Anderson is now the first designer in the history of Christian Dior, after the death of Monsieur Dior himself in 1957, to oversee all the women’s, men’s and haute couture collections, according to Dior. I think.
I just read Rachel Rashjian’s powerful post at WaPo, and she says that it’s not at all clear that the Anderson claim is correct. So much for that angle.
Marc Bohan oversaw the launch of Dior’s men’s line, Christian Dior Monsieur, in 1970, as he was also designing women’s. A Dior spokesperson confirmed that those first men’s collections were signed by Bohan, though they did not respond to a request further clarification over whether press release language that this is the first time at Dior “since Monsieur Dior” that a creative director will work on men’s, women’s and couture was meant to refer to the men’s line Monsieur, or the late designer, who is often referred to by Dior employees as Monsieur Dior.
For certain, the Anderson appointment as Creative Director at Christian Dior was expected after Maria Grazia Chiuri finished the Dior portion of her career with a spectacular Cruise 2026 show in Rome, Chiuri’s birthplace.
The Northern Irish designer will present his first collection, Dior Men Summer 2026, in Paris on June 27, 2025.
Above: Jonathan Anderson's Pilgrimage to LOEWE's Paula's Ibiza Summer 2023 Has Arrived AOC Fashion
Over the past week, AOC has detailed why Jonathan Anderson is a great choice for Christian Dior and why we are calm over losing the most overtly-feminist designer and women’s history storyteller in fashion ever. Anne is a lot calmer than Rachel Rashjian, who I respect emormously.
In today’s world Chiuri matters. It also helps that she more then tripled — HSBC estimates quadrupled — Dior’s revenues. Chiuri is a rainmaker. AOC is digesting all the discussion and will formulate another response.
Meanwhile, these are recent AOC articles — many of them going into great detail about the talented Jonathan Anderson, and my making peace with his appointment in recent weeks. Two things can be true at once, as two great talents came together in the history of a great brand called Christian Dior.
2013 Jonathan Anderson Recruitment to LVMH
Pierre-Yves Roussel, then chairman and chief executive of LVMH Fashion Group, said about bringing Jonathan Anderson onboard in 2013: "When Delphine Arnault [LVMH executive and daughter of Bernard Arnault, LVMH's multi-billionaire founder] and I first met Jonathan, we immediately felt that we could help him express the full potential of his innovative, fast-emerging and already influential brand."
Delphine Arnault says she remembers climbing the stairs to a small apartment Jonathan Anderson rented near the Gare du Nord. She was immediately struck by the clarity of Anderson’s vision for JW Anderson. In short order the LVMH group took a minority share in JW Anderson and appointed him creative director of Spanish leather goods brand Loewe.
LOEWE | Decades of Confusion
We are taking a deep dive into the designer’s career at Loewe and JW Anderson, along with his many sources of creative stimulii. This post gets us started.
In the video above, Anderson’s LOEWE enters the national spelling bee competition. Vanity Fair France, shared with Vanity Fair US, their observations about Jonathan Anderson, writing below:
Anderson has never differentiated between fashion and art. A trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum for many years, he regularly collaborates with contemporary artists such as Franz Erhard Walther and Lara Favaretto. His concept of the collection as an ephemeral work is rooted in a reflection on temporality and emotion, notions dear to Christian Dior himself, who was a gallery owner before becoming a couturier. This approach also enables Anderson to create a transversal link between Dior's history and today's expectations. The founder, a lover of architectural silhouettes, flowers and references to the 18th century, would undoubtedly have appreciated the way the new artistic director enjoys mixing irony and rigor, tradition and subversion. On June 27, he will unveil his first collection for Dior at Men's Fashion Week in Paris. The tone will then be set.
Pretentious But Oh So Articulate | Jonathan Anderson Opines on a Coke Bottle [2015]
There will be no couture show, and Anderson will present his first Women’s collection in October.
From the viewpoint of Christian Dior Couture Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Delphine Arnault, she long ago knew that Anderson was headed for Dior. Business of Fashion reports that Arnault shared her thoughts at breakfast last week with Imran Amed:
We’ve talked a lot. I think I haven’t missed a Loewe show — maybe one — but you know, I’ve been following his path for a long time. I love finding new talents, and I was a big supporter of his talent early on.
My father was also involved in the choice of Jonathan, of course. He’s been also following his work and seeing him often throughout the years.
Jonathan is also very loyal. He stayed 11 years at Loewe, even though I’m sure that he had many [other] propositions.
For all these reasons he’s the perfect choice for Dior.
For reasons I understand deeply, based on our tremendous support for Maria Grazia Chiuri, we want her light to continue to shine brightly. However, Delphine Arnault’s point about Anderson staying 11 years at Loewe — when he absolutely declined other offers — is valid.
In AOC’s love for Chiuri, I been raving for years about Jonathan Anderson at LOEWE. And this 40-year-old massive talent, spontaneous but also deeply schooled in design and product development has his own visions for Dior’s future.
We’ve added some of our favorite campaigns from Jonathan Anderson’s LOEWE years.
Enter the Anthuriums, Straight from Some Men’s Worst Nightmares
LOEWE SS 2023 Women's Campaign with Taylor Russell by David Sims AOC Fashion
The majority of the world, including the Vatican, fails to see the anthurium as dangerous. This ‘non-threatening’ majority-view plant is the perfect hospitality gift, even for someone you don’t know well.
In reality, anthuriums are considered to be in the erotic flowers category, especially by women artists, and Jonathan Anderson knows that fact.
These modern flowers look like an erect phallus penetrating a flower that is in fact poisonous. Not only with pets but in the human mouth, you will experience a painful burning sensation with blisters and swelling if you eat an anthurium. Creating a fullblown MFM around your desires, could go spectacularly wrong.
In this LOEWE Spring 2023 Campaign, Taylor Russell wears anthuriums as a breast plate. There’s a lot of human psychology going on here, in the creative mind of Jonathan Anderson.
David Sims Eyes LOEWE FW2022 Campaign with
Anthea Hamilton Pumpkins 5,6,7 2022
David Sims Eyes LOEWE FW2022 Campaign with
Anthea Hamilton Pumpkins 5,6,7 2022
David Sims Eyes LOEWE FW 2022 Campaign with Anthea Hamilton Pumpkins 5,6,7 2022 AOC Fashion
LOEWE Creative Director Jonathan Anderson first met Hamilton in 2015, when he commissioned her to create a trio of artworks as part of a Loewe Foundation project for the Miami Design District. The two creatives have been friends ever since and were featured together in conversation by the New York Times in March, 2017 [gifted link].
LOEWE SS2020 Campaign ‘The Odyssey’ by Tyler Mitchell
LOEWE's Nomadic SS 2020 'The Odyssey' Campaign by Tyler Mitchell AOC Fashion
Photographer Tyler Mitchell returned to Spanish Luxury House LOEWE, shooting its Nomadic SS20 range by designer Jonathan Anderson. ‘The Odyssey’, a collection of organic garments, was shot at Barcelona’s Olympic Park.
Key fabrics in Anderson’s designs include Japanese punched cotton gauze, indigo dyed and woven by hand in Burkina Faso and Bangladeshi embroidered cotton. We note a very special elephant bag being worn as a necklace and part of Doutzen Kroe’s Elephant Crisis Fund with Loewe’s.