Anderson juices up the vibes for Dior with spotlight on Hollywood

Like Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, fashion designer Jonathan Anderson’s ambition is to be not just a Parisian couturier but a Hollywood power player. “We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,” said Anderson before a blockbuster catwalk show in Los Angeles. Stage Fright, the Hitchcock caper-noir for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich, was the show’s origin story. “There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”

Models on the runway on the Dior Cruise collection in Los Angeles. Photograph: Guerin Charles/Abaca/Shutterstock

Anderson, 41, who was born in Northern Ireland but since being appointed to Dior splits his time between London and Paris, has his own Hollywood side hustle as the costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films, and is set on reinvigorating Dior’s relationship with the film industry.

The catwalk snaked through a boxfresh $724m (£535m) brutalist LA landmark, the concrete and glass David Geffen Galleries at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The scene setting was somewhere between an all-American gas station and a Hollywood back lot. Vintage Cadillacs and glowing Edward Hopper street lamps dotted the catwalk. Al Pacino wore shades in the front row as the Californian sunset glowed pink behind tall palms.

Al Pacino with fellow actor Anya Taylor-Joy at the Dior show in LA. Photograph: Gilbert Flores/WWD/Getty Images

Star of the show was the bar jacket, a Dior classic, given a Hollywood makeover and moonlighting as a curving white tuxedo. There were fluffy boudoir mules in soft rose pink, and silk scarves wound tight around the throat. That Californian classic, the blue jean, was dramatically dishevelled with rips lashed with glittering silver threads. Anderson’s brief at Dior is to add cultural relevance and eye-catching edge, but without sacrificing the scale and reach of the luxury giant. To juice up the vibes, without sacrificing the bottom line. Box office glamour came with a few plot twists: pastel cocktail dresses were paired with quirky jewelled snail clutch bags.

White tuxedo jackets at the Dior Cruise collection. Composite: Gilbert Flores/WWD/Getty Images/Daniel Cole/Reuters

Anderson hinted that the decision to stage a show in LA was the launch of a new strategy to deepen Dior’s involvement in cinema. “This is part of a bigger picture that will unfold throughout the year, from films that I will do costumes for, or franchises that we will do costume for … it’s a starting point of how the bridge between fashion, commerce, and film could be reimagined,” he said.

Men’s shirts were a collaboration with the artist Ed Ruscha. “Ed is LA. He’s such a style icon, and so charismatic,” said Anderson. Words and numbers printed across the shirts nodded to the gas station iconography of Ruscha’s paintings, while headpieces spelling out “Dior” and “Star”, by milliner Philip Treacy (“a fellow Irishman”, Anderson pointed out) echoed Ruscha’s use of typography.

Men’s shirts with headpieces spelling our Dior. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

The show follows a Chanel near-takeover of Biarritz a fortnight ago. May’s “Cruise” shows, according to Rose Coffey, senior foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory “evolved from escapist collections designed for ultra wealthy clients who travel between climates, into a form of experiential marketing …

“Fashion no longer moves in the clearly defined seasonal rhythms it once did, and the traditional boundaries of spring/summer and autumn/winter are not as culturally dominant. Cruise is an opportunity for brands to keep themselves top of mind in the cultural conversation. They are about visibility and storytelling and entertainment.”

Many of this year’s Cruise shows are taking place in the US, with Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes following Dior in the coming weeks. This reflects luxury’s focus on the US market, where demand is currently stronger than in Europe and China. High net worth potential clients, who place a high value on invitations to brand events, make up a significant portion of the audience at Cruise shows.

The lavish aesthetic of Cruise season also chimes with the flashy tone set by the current White House. “The elephant in the room is the Trump presidency, which is an influence in the sense that America dominates global media right now, so brands want to be there” said Coffey.