Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut for Dior Spring Summer 26 opened not with clothes, but with a film. Fashion has been waiting with baited breath to see how the former Loewe designer would interpret the storied history of the French fashion House — and projected on a suspended inverted pyramid above the runway, came our answer. An Adam Curtis–directed short film played out in fragmented memories and cinematic flourishes, collaging archival Dior footage with flashes of surrealism. It honoured Dior’s lineage while signalling the beginning of something else entirely.

As Anderson himself wrote in the show notes: “Daring to enter the house of Dior requires an empathy with its history, a willingness to decode its language, which is part of the collective imagination, and the resoluteness to put all of it in a box. Not to erase it, but to store it, looking ahead, coming back to bits, traces or entire silhouettes from time to time, like revisiting memories.”

This tension — between reverence and re-imagination — echoed throughout the collection. With each look, Dior's rich visual language was deconstructed and reassembled through a distinctly Anderson-ified lens. Familiar silhouettes appeared skewed, compressed, or blown out of proportion. The Bar jacket was shrunken entirely, and miniskirts abounded, bringing a sense of youthfulness to the collection. Often they were paired with sharply tailored shirting, high Victorian collars, or knit capes, creating a language of contradiction, between aristocrat and adolescent.

Anderson's touch could also be felt through the collection's obsession with volume. Dresses floated away from the body held aloft by barely-there frameworks, and echoing historic crinolines. Bubble hems, sculpted peplums, and cage-like constructions appeared throughout, nodding to Dior’s couture archive while leaning into Anderson’s own architectural instincts.

Textural contrasts added another layer of interest. From wispy gowns and delicate knits to stiff lace that was used to exaggerate collars, and delicate embroidery that revealed itself only up close. From a distance, the overall impression was often stripped back, even minimal. And material pairings — raw denim with silk, knitwear against satin — created a deliberate friction that mirrored the collection’s ongoing play between tradition and disruption.

Accessories, predictably, were covetable. They underscored Anderson’s ability to ground even the most sculptural looks with wearability. Footwear, designed in collaboration with Nina Christen, offered a wide range: from heels adorned with delicate bows or cut-out hearts that stood to attention with each steps, from mules topped exaggerated floral rosettes.

Anderson’s womenswear debut at Dior doesn’t tie a neat bow around the future of the house — but opens it. And as he stepped onto the runway to take his final bow, the standing ovation he received made it clear: fashion is on board for whatever comes next.