All eyes were on the Northern Irish designer’s debut – not just to reinvent Dior, but to jolt fashion itself out of its slump
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t was the biggest Paris fashion week moment in years. There were two best actress Oscar winners in the audience (Mikey Madison, Charlize Theron) and the daughter of a third (Sunday Rose Kidman Urban) on the catwalk. There were so many K-pop stars that the teenagers of Paris had packed out the Tuileries gardens from dawn.
The French first ladies Brigitte Macron and Carla Bruni, both embroiled in news-making storylines of their own, chatted in the front row. The film-maker Luca Guadagnino designed the stage set around an upside-down glass pyramid directly invoking the Louvre, that shimmering icon of modern Paris.
“Well, Dior is drama,” shrugged Jonathan Anderson, the 41-year-old Northern Irish designer who was making his debut, backstage before the show. Dressed as usual in jeans, navy jumper and trainers – if you saw the most impactful designer of his generation in the self-checkout queue at Tesco Metro, you wouldn’t blink an eye – Anderson was facing up to the challenge.
