“A bit of angst, a bit of wrongness”: Jonathan Anderson mixes things up for his second Dior men’s show
For his sophomore Dior men’s collection, Jonathan Anderson embraced the beauty of collision, splicing glam-rock defiance with couture, and polish with provocation. Anders Christian Madsen reports.
With their skinny jeans and glam-rock sequined halter tops, the first three looks of the Dior men’s show on Wednesday afternoon almost heralded a return to the energy Hedi Slimane pioneered for the house in the 2000s. And while Jonathan Anderson’s second men’s collection—presented in a silver-floored box in the garden of Musée Rodin—quickly shape-shifted into something else, as is often his way, the memory of Slimane’s neo-rock romanticism lingered a little bit.
Before the show, Anderson talked about “the idea of collaging things together.” Practically, he applied it to those sequined tops reconstructed from notions of dresses by the early 20th-century couturier Paul Poiret. His exoticism echoed in the patterns of silk trousers and capes, which entered into the greater collage that characterised the collection. It was a mélange of many things: Anderson juxtaposed dress codes, from the hyper-formality of tailcoats (also deformalized into knitwear and workwear) to the pure casualness of V-neck knits elongated into djellabas. He juxtaposed eras, from Poiret’s party tops to shrunken takes on Christian Dior’s bar jackets and Slimane’s lean lines. And, most tellingly of the current social climate, he juxtaposed attitudes: a desire for classic, polished, well-behaved elegance contrasted by a punk-rock defiance. Anderson put the feeling down to “a bit of angst, a bit of wrongness,” which summed up our moment in time.
It was a mélange of many things: Anderson juxtaposed dress codes, from the hyper-formality of tailcoats (also deformalized into knitwear and workwear) to the pure casualness of V-neck knits elongated into djellabas.
Anders Christian Madsen REPORTS
Picking from every wardrobe they could find, these men were easily expressing both the feeling of chaos and the need to keep calm that we’re all experiencing in the volatile vortex of news that has defined 2026 so far. “The world was a mess but his hair was perfect,” someone once sang on one of Slimane’s Dior soundtracks. The bright orange punk wigs worn by some of Anderson’s models—which felt like an homage to the Scottish designer Pam Hogg, who died in November—externalized the messy world a lot more than Slimane’s rebel-angel princelings did at Dior in the 2000s. But in the returned presence of his skinny silhouette and air of glamorous, nocturnal romanticism, this show hinted at a route for Dior’s menswear that might take Anderson back to its millennial heyday.
Most tellingly of the current social climate, he juxtaposed attitudes: a desire for classic, polished, well-behaved elegance contrasted by a punk-rock defiance. Anderson put the feeling down to “a bit of angst, a bit of wrongness,” which summed up our moment in time.
ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN REPORTS
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