It was a Dior doubleheader at the Fashion Awards in London earlier this month when Jonathan Anderson, creative director of women’s, men’s and haute couture collections, was crowned Designer of the Year and Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of the French fashion house, received a Special Recognition Award for her contribution to the global fashion industry.
“It’s been an amazing year, a very exciting year too, with the arrival of Jonathan,” Arnault told WWD. “He’s spent a lot of time in the archives working on the history of the house, on the codes of the house. It’s the first time since Mr. [Christian] Dior that a designer is working on men’s, women’s and couture, and it’s great for us because it brings, in terms of communication, more coherence between all the universes. Also, in terms of products, it’s much more coherent.”
Indeed, Arnault said that “if 2025 was exciting, 2026 will be even more exciting because we’re going to see the products and his vision come in the store.”
On Jan. 2, the first drops of Anderson-designed Dior products for women and men are scheduled to arrive.
“We’re working with Olivier [Bialobos, Dior’s deputy managing director] and the teams on 360-degree communication in terms of windows, visual merchandising inside the stores, and digital,” she said.
A key talent scout at family-controlled luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Arnault cottoned on to the designer from Northern Ireland very early in his career, when his androgynous designs for his JW Anderson brand started to make waves.
“I used to go and see his collections when he had a small showroom in Paris, and we decided to invest in his brand and to appoint him at Loewe almost at the same time,” she recalled in the interview. “Over the years, I’ve seen how talented and creative he is. He’s also very loyal and persistent.
“He stayed at Loewe for 11 years, and I am sure he had a lot of temptation [to leave] during those years, but he wanted Loewe to be a certain size before he took the next step in his career,” she said. “I think that Dior is a great house for him. I work with him almost every day, we talk a lot and he really impresses me.”
Arnault said the indefatigable designer has quickly adapted to his new job.
“Loewe is a big brand, so he was used to having a big team to manage. When you are a creative head, you’re like the conductor, working across different [areas] and product categories,” she said. “At Dior, you also have to work very closely with the atelier. I think we have the best ateliers in the world for ready-to-wear and couture, and it’s a great privilege to be able to work with them. Some of the people in the atelier have been there for over 40 years, and some were even working with Marc Bohan [Dior’s longest-serving creative director]. The history of our house is also in our atelier and in the transmission of skills.”
Although Dior is much bigger than Loewe, the second-largest fashion brand in the group after Louis Vuitton, Anderson “has done a very, very good job,” according to Arnault.
“He’s been very humble in trying to learn a lot about the history, the archives and the codes of our house. And I think that what he’s doing is very different from what he did at Loewe,” she said. “He understands the house very well, and he’s extremely modern. He also has a very precise vision of what he wants to do, and where he wants to go with the house. It’s extremely exciting for me, for the teams, for Olivier, for the studio, and also for the people in the stores. They are so excited to get his products. I think it’s going to be a great new chapter for Dior.”
