Dior has always spoken the language of magnificence. But for Jonathan Anderson's Dior debut – the Dior Men’s Spring/Summer 2026 – he rewrote the dialogue between the House's legacy and now, transforming it into a modern museum of memories. He staged the Paris show inside a velvet-lined replica of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, where the collection entered like a breath finally released. On the walls were two Chardin paintings that displayed a look into still life. This wasn’t Dior in its usual display, but something more introspective. The opulence remained, but Anderson tuned it to a quieter, more refined register that still keeps his signature curiosity and whimsy.

It is here, that Jonathan Anderson begins to speak. The silhouettes are controlled yet soft, with tailcoats in greys, cropped bar jackets paired with slim trousers, and formal shirts that look comfortably worn in. These pieces aren’t modernised for the sake of novelty. Instead, they’re treated like heirlooms: reproduced with reverence, then gently, almost slyly, twisted. A regimental necktie peeks from beneath a nipped waistcoat; heavy Donegal tweeds are tailored into coats that speak of discipline. There’s a military backbone, no doubt, but it's frayed at the edges, softened by youth.

Rococo design arrives in petite floral embroideries, satin ribbons, Dior’s signature flower charms add a sweet, youthful flourish. And it’s everywhere. Anderson doesn’t shy away from Dior’s historical fixations, but he refuses to treat them as precious. That’s the Anderson effect: he makes the ornate feel lovable, the archival feel accessible. One look features a fine wool coat draped just over tailored shorts, worn with knee high socks and sandals. It’s soft power, executed with intent.

Accessories play might be Anderson’s favourite trick of function disguised as fantasy. Book totes come made in Saint Pères editions of Les Fleurs du Mal and In Cold Blood, a poet-murderer pairing that somehow makes perfect sense in this whimsically-warped world. The Lady Dior, reimagined by Sheila Hicks, becomes an artwork wrapped in linen strips, less bag, and more artefact. Everything serves a purpose here. Nothing feels laboured. Anderson's usual motifs of nature-infused, historical-cross pollination, direct reference, visual irony, and inflated silhouettes, were all carefully folded into the House’s storied codes.

This is a collection for the Dior man who dresses to become someone, something. He borrows from the past not to imitate it, but to live beside it. And in this museum of feeling, Anderson doesn’t just deliver a collection, he offers a new stance, a new way of being. Quietly radical. Unapologetically sincere.

Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut isn't just a nod to the archive. It is precise, poetic, and a little uncanny. He isn’t entering the Dior legacy so much as he is bending it, making his collections into something that feels less like history and more like now. And the legacy that Anderson is joining here, isn’t something you inherit. It’s something you make, moment by moment. And this was one of those defining moments.

Dior Men Spring/Summer 2026 celebrity front row

It might be more appropriate to ask who didn't attend, as the Dior Men's Spring/Summer 2026 show was truely the show to be at.

Drew Starkey, Robert Pattison, Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Rihanna, A$ap Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Sabrina Carpenter. Where fellow designers, Donatella Versace, Pierpaolo Pretelli, and Stefano Pilato.