The lights might have been on in Hollywood, but no one was home. They had all jetted to Paris to watch Jonathan Anderson’s hotly-anticipated debut womenswear collection for Dior.
A keen cinephile as well as a designer, Northern Irish-born Anderson, 41, assembled a blockbuster front row drawn from the film world’s highest echelons.
Actresses including Charlize Theron, 50, Jennifer Lawrence, 35, Mikey Madison, 26, Jenna Ortega, 23, Anya Taylor-Joy, 29, Juliette Binoche, 61, Taylor Russell, 31, Rashida Jones, 49, and Rosamund Pike, 46, were all on hand to watch the first womenswear show from Dior’s new creative director.
There was also a rare sighting of Johnny Depp, 62, whose ten-year contract as the face of Dior Sauvage doesn’t usually extend to him attending the fashion shows, but that didn’t stop him posing on the arm of France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron, 72.
It’s not rocket science that Bernard Arnault, CEO of Dior’s parent company LVMH, would deploy a ‘no expense spared’ policy to the guest list. So perhaps the greater accolade was the rare presence of so many other fashion designers on the front row.
It’s a token of the esteem in which Anderson, right, is held that ten of his peers turned out to watch his debut, including creative directors Alessandro Michele (Valentino), Glenn Martens (Maison Margiela), Pharrell Williams (Louis Vuitton menswear) and Stella McCartney.
In this same spirit of camaraderie, the show opened with a short film celebrating Dior designers through the ages, from Monsieur Dior himself to John Galliano, Raf Simons and outgoing designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. It was a clever way to acknowledge the past and how it shapes the present.
For Anderson’s debut, this meant trawling through the archives to present modern versions of classic Dior tropes such as the Bar jacket – that fit and flare masterpiece of tailoring that brought Christian Dior to the attention of the world in 1947 with what became known as the New Look – the peacoat and the matador cape, then modernising them even further by styling them with slouchy oversized jeans and denim miniskirts.
Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban, 17, in a grey blouse, black neck tie and black pleat-fronted trousers, appeared on the catwalk
There was also a rare sighting of Johnny Depp, 62, posing on the arm of France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron, 72
Jennifer Lawrence was on hand to watch the first womenswear show from Dior’s new creative director
Bernard Arnault, CEO of Dior’s parent company LVMH, deployed a ‘no expense spared’ policy to the guest list
These, along with the Lady Dior handbags, are the items that will appeal to younger customers for whom denim is a 24/7 uniform. Dior may be a couture house, but nearly 80 years on from its inception, the casualisation of women’s wardrobes is a fact of life.
Even a front row seat at a fashion show doesn’t warrant dressing up, with Brigitte Macron and Rosamund Pike both in jeans. Anderson knows that to drive sales, he has to cut Dior’s cloth in a way that appeals to all ages.
Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban, 17, in a grey blouse, black neck tie and black pleat-fronted trousers, appeared on the catwalk. It was only the third time she has walked at Paris Fashion Week.
She proved that whatever is happening in your personal life – even the shock divorce of your parents – the show must go on.
