S1 E19

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FROM ANDREA BATILLA

HOW JONATHAN ANDERSON WILL DESTROY DIOR

In 1970, Marc Bohan, then creative director of Dior, launched the menswear line Dior Homme, adding a fundamental piece to the brand’s world. At the time, Christian Dior was still in the hands of Boussac, who had founded it together with Christian, but not long after, in 1978, the group would go bankrupt.

Bernard Arnault bought it for one franc in 1982 and appointed Gianfranco Ferré as creative director in 1989. From that moment, the fate of the men's and women's collections would weakly intertwine until Hedi Slimane’s arrival in 2000, who gave menswear a distinct identity, clearly separating it from the women’s collections, which were then designed by John Galliano. Hedi was succeeded by Kris Van Assche in 2006, who was then replaced by Kim Jones in 2018.

From 2000 to today, a period during which the creative direction of Dior men and women has passed into the hands of Jonathan Anderson, there have essentially been two different brands sharing the same name – something not entirely unusual for LVMH, which has applied the same strategy to Louis Vuitton.

Recently, however, the star of Dior – the personal brand of the Arnault family – has started to fade, retreating in the market and suffering from repetitiveness. In this context, it makes sense to reflect on what the choice of Jonathan Anderson as creative director of both men’s and women’s collections actually means.