Jonathan Anderson at Dior: New, Not Safe

The internet, influencers, and “couch critics” all effusively express their desire for the return of individuality, eccentricity, singularity, etc. within the world of design and fashion, and yet recoil when confronted with it. An issue I find is that many of us claim to be counterculture, punk, eclectic, and singular. In reality, we are only comfortable with those descriptors so long as we can point to a reference from our algorithms.

So long as we have been served a digestible version of the idea. So long as it has been beta tested by people with cultural capital and stamped with the approval of a hungry audience.

We can be counterculture, but only up to a certain point. Sure, I’ll emulate 80s punk. They already tried it on. It has been established as culturally cool. I can be comfortable here. The fact of the matter is that cool, or at least cool in this way, is not comfortable. New is not often cool. It is challenging. It is weird. It is hard to get our fingers around, elusive, and difficult to hold for too long without getting tired. Jonathan Anderson’s second menswear collection since starting at Dior is a perfect representation of this phenomenon. It is odd. It makes you wince a bit.

You have to look around and really ask yourself, “What am I seeing? What does this say?” Much like his debut with the house, it is referential, dense, and intellectual.

Anderson said at the show that this collection was once again a “character study” interested in exploring “the idea of a new aristocracy.” He went on to say that he was eschewing “the aspect of money” and instead looking more closely at these individuals’ eccentricity. Anderson is deeply interested in this modern-day flâneur. I talked about it previously when reviewing Anderson’s debut, but these “characters” are so embodied. Last time we met our angsty little rich boy, he was playing dress-up with his grandfather’s old capes and cravats.

Now, we see our young aristocrat wearing his tailcoat shirtless and carelessly attaching epaulettes to his button-down shirts. Ultimately, it was weird. But it was fucking cool. I would not wear half of it, but I am absolutely going to take notes on the styling, the hair, the texture, and the materials. It makes you uncomfortable in the same way something new always will. I am confused but excited. I am happy to see something really, truly new. The question is whether people can really mean what they say when they ask for originality. New is uncomfortable. New will not feel like an influencer’s fit pic. This is fashion that makes me want to try something different, and frankly, that is cool.