Dior Is in Full Bloom

Jason Sargent Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Brooke BobbWed, March 4, 2026 at 1:18 PM UTC

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Spring has sprung in Paris. On Tuesday afternoon, the Jardin de Tuileries was lit up with sunshine on the second day of fashion week as we walked towards Dior’s show venue at the west end of the park. This was Jonathan Anderson’s second women’s ready-to-wear show since he became creative director early last year, and he took inspiration from the Tuileries itself—the rich history dating back to the 14th century, the manicured gardens, the famous green metal chairs used by visitors to sit alone or commune with strangers, friends, lovers. The Tuileries is also where Dior has long staged its runway shows. A central gathering place for locals and tourists full of cherry trees and topiary, it calls back to Monsieur Christian Dior’s lifelong obsession with gardens.

The runway was built in a hexagon shape surrounding ponds sprinkled with lily pads. (Monet’s famous “Water Lilies” painting series hangs at the Musée de l'Orangerie just steps away.) A single catwalk ran down the middle of the venue, while the seats (benches designed in the same color as the park chairs) were enclosed in an atrium-like structure. The idea was to conjure a glamorous walk through the park, a fantasy promenade hailing from the Belle Époque.

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It was an unseasonably warm early March day in Paris, but a gorgeous setting nonetheless. Sweat be damned, we sat—many of us in cashmere sweaters and leather jackets—anxiously awaiting Anderson’s next big moment at Dior. How would he follow his amazing, punkish menswear show and stunning flora-inspired couture collection, both shown in January? The designer has been steadily building a new language for the house of Dior, one that revels in its rich heritage while challenging the idea that a storied French fashion house needs to take itself seriously or play it safe in order to sell.

You might think that using something as simple as a park or a garden as a starting point for a fashion collection would be boring. You might think it sounds trite. You might say it’s too easy or, as I’m sure many headline writers and Instagram account managers are typing right now: “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” But oh, how absolutely, deliciously, wildly groundbreaking Anderson’s fall collection really was, with nary an average bloom in sight.

The first three models appeared wearing different versions of the same look: a cropped Bar jacket paired back to a tiered, ruffled, Swiss dot mini skirt with a tail-like train fluttering behind. The look pulled from the elegant spirit of the house of Dior, but felt ravishingly rooted in today.

The anatomies of what followed were exquisite, those sumptuous, bouncy skirts giving way to Poiret-inspired embroidered balloon pants and frock coats lined in shearing, draped at the waist to give them a lighter, more traditionally romantic feel. Worn with embellished jeans, they took on a completely new, radically louche life, strolling in perfect harmony with a reimagining of the details in Mnsr. Dior’s famous 1949 “Junon” gown—Anderson took the scalloped petals and fashioned them into an asymmetrical denim skirt.

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As a colleague remarked to me after the show, if we hadn't known better, we would’ve all thought we were seeing another couture collection from Anderson this season. But aside from the emotional whammy Anderson’s fall show delivered, there was such a breadth of offering here. After all, this is one of the most massive brands in the world, and as insanely skilled as Anderson is as a designer, he is becoming equally adept at steering and driving the business.

For all of the intricate craftsmanship and drama of the clothes on the runway yesterday, Anderson also showed effortless trousers and scarf-adorned shirts, brown suede Chelsea boots, and straight cut, unadorned denim (lifted by the beautiful little bar jackets with mille-feuille tulle peplum Anderson and his team styled them with). The designer closed the show with a '50s-style textured black evening coat—a simple period at the end of a collection that he was clearly confident about (as well he should be).

These clothes awakened a sleeping giant in all of us who were lucky enough to be there. They had emotion and depth without feeling heavy or overwrought with ideas. They were—gasp!—actually wearable, without the lack-of-soul vibes that so often come with mass-marketed luxury clothes (something we've seen a lot of at this tier of fashion over the last couple of years).

This collection made you want to get dressed up in tulle and taffeta, take a walk, meet a stranger, sit in the sun sans phone, get outside, and live. Anderson’s Dior has guts, but it also does exactly what fashion should always do: It makes you feel something splendid. Here, the idea of touching grass never seemed so divine.

Photo credit: LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

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