The invite for Dior's Spring/Summer 2027 menswear show was a black disco ball. But down the stairs at the Musée Nissim de Camondo wasn’t partywear, more so the day after. This season, Jonathan Anderson conducts a character study of party attendees as they leave the next morning. To this effect, crisp white shirts are paired with colourful overnight knit bags, and silver bow ties are slightly askew on denim shirts.
The opening looks – a trio of suits with dropped lapels was translucent, revealing the white, barely messy white shirts underneath. The light suiting felt novel, different for the legacy Anderson has been building at Dior for officially a year now. His vision, which ranges over the entirety of the maison, is built on a reconsideration of his predecessors’ work through the lens of the founder. Hedi Slimane's circulation-defying jeans, for instance, are softened by Anderson's romanticism, rendered in pale butter yellow and paired with a blue coat trimmed in white.
On the subject of trousers, Anderson seems intent on resetting proportions. Skinny silhouettes remain, but they are no longer the aggressive, rockstar uniform they once were; they’re offset by elongated coats and generous shirting. They’re not totally docile, though. Iterations in silver and gold punctuated the collection, giving the otherwise dandy looks a rakish charm. Glittered versions of the same trousers were paired with relaxed pastel shirts, worn untucked.
That ease was omnipresent. Ties were loosened, collars left open, jackets shrugged on rather than buttoned. House's codes, like the bar jacket, became completely unravelled, fraying at the edges as if disintegrating.
There is an emerging consistency to Anderson's Dior. Rather than imposing an entirely new vocabulary, he continues to excavate the house's archive, filtering familiar archetypes through his own sensibility. One year in, Anderson's party is only just getting started.
Words by Pedro Vasconcelos
