Dior sent guests two wenwan walnuts ahead of its Spring/Summer 2027 show. Their uneven forms, Jonathan Anderson explained, had set him thinking about asymmetry. At the Jardin des Tuileries, where trees rose from the pond and mist drifted across the runway, he offered a more specific proposition: a short, layered chiffon skirt worn with a jacket.
It opened the show. It returned at the end. One year into his tenure, Anderson appears to be asking whether this could become a recognisable Dior shape.
The question is important for a house whose Bar jacket is still referenced almost 80 years after its introduction. Anderson has spent his first year taking Dior’s history apart and putting selected pieces back into circulation. Here, houndstooth appeared in sheer layers, a barn jacket borrowed the Bar jacket’s waist, and zippered sandals recalled the Galliano years. The references were easy to spot, though the collection was most interesting when they met clothes that looked less concerned with the archive.
Loose, untucked shirts sat beside finely pleated skirts. Roomy double-breasted jackets accompanied silver and green metallic trousers. Bows, lace, feathered textures and floral prints supplied the romance Anderson said he had been considering through Jane Austen. At times, the shifts between these looks were abrupt. They also gave the delicate pieces a useful change of company. A chiffon skirt feels quite different beneath an oversized shirt than it does in a complete runway look.
That variety may be central to Anderson’s approach. He has spoken about wanting to see the people he imagines wearing Dior on the street, without insisting that every look meet a practical test. The show offered coats and shirts alongside dresses made for a far more particular occasion.
The repeated skirt gave this wide-ranging collection a point to return to. It is early to call it a new house code. For now, it is a clear proposal from a designer who says he is still searching for a silhouette. What happens when the skirt leaves the Tuileries will be more revealing than its two appearances there.
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