Unveiled last week at Paris Men’s Fashion Week, Jonathan Anderson’s debut chapter with luxury fashion maison Dior has set the stage for an era of decoding and recoding the language and history of the House. Named the creative director for the brand’s women’s wear, men’s wear and couture by LVMH last month, Anderson is the first designer uniting all aspects of the House since Christian Dior himself. This much-anticipated debut ushers in the blend of Anderson’s personal innovation and vision with Dior’s rich legacy of elegance, opulence, and timeless beauty.

Inspired by the architecture of the Beaux-arts, the stage was modeled after the velvet-lined interiors of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie—a fitting setting for a collection based on the interplay between archival masterpieces and everyday conversation. A museum-esque stage, with its carefully curated elegance and reverent atmosphere offers a fitting portrait of Dior, spotlighting two spaces in which artistry is celebrated, cultural narratives are preserved, and viewers of such grandeur are invited to engage with such creative expressions. The walls, stark if not for two modest yet beautiful paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin, bring forward this same reverence for the everyday—proving that art need not concern itself solely with excess and spectacle.

Anderson’s collection represents joy in the art of dressing, with garments that transcend generations through the mesh of past relics, archival rediscoveries, classic tropes, and timeless design. Anderson isn’t looking to reinvent Christian Dior’s revolutionary “New Look”—it just so happens that he has created new looks of his own, which similarly blends the past with the current happenings of fashion in his time. The backwards-looking approach is an ode to Dior itself, translating an ornamental past into modern terms.

The celebrated Bar jacket, with its iconic hourglass silhouette, is reinvigorated with Donegal tweed and Anderson’s own twists—reminding all who bear witness of the power of feminine seduction. Modern-day tailcoats and 18th and 19th century waistcoats reconstruct formality and blend the line between night and day, with some in the tweed and some featuring intricate embroideries, roses, and Diorette charms all in ornate, Rococo style, as tribute to Monsieur Dior’s love for the era. Anderson brings the Delft, Caprice and La Cigale dresses into the present, recontextualizing the originals with new, constructed twists. Draped over the shoulder, the Dior Book Tote gets book covers, decorated with covers of Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, while the crossbody bag pays homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Textile artist Sheila Hicks, meanwhile, reimagines the Lady Dior cloaking it in a nest of pure linen ponytails.

Style goes beyond clothing—it’s a way to hold oneself to embody a character that is projected into the world of uncertainty. Anderson’s designs punctuate softness and neutrals with bold vigor, creating a future in tandem with the past. The allure of Dior lies in its invitation to explore imagination, and the latest collection is a testament to that exact sense of reinvention.