Jonathan Anderson Tours the Dior Heritage Archive: Objects of Affection
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At Dior Heritage in Paris, which holds the collection of Christian Dior, the house's creative director Jonathan Anderson pulls a series of pieces from the archive and explains why each matters to them. The tour covers garments, shoes, books and the paper records of Dior's first collections. Two threads run through it: how the archive feeds Anderson's own work at the house, and their view that Dior was a sharper businessman and storyteller than his romantic image suggests.
The Bar Jacket: Iconic Image Versus the Object Itself
The tour begins in a viewing room near the front of the building, where pieces are brought out from storage and handled only with gloves. Anderson admits that starting with the Bar jacket is "really cliché," but calls it a pillar of the house.
Seeing it in person was a different experience from seeing it in photographs, they say. Sometimes the image is what makes a garment iconic. Without a person wearing it, the jacket "becomes more technical." Anderson stresses that this doesn't make it less magical.
Anderson describes Dior as "a bit of an alchemist" who looked back in order to reconstruct the future, and sees the Bar jacket as an example. It returns to a defined waistline at a time when, in Anderson's telling, everything had become softer. To them the jacket expresses resilience, "nearly like France was back in business."
Anderson connects the jacket to how they approach couture today. In the couture shows, they say, you have to ignore the monetary value of the work, because the point is to protect a craft. That allows the house to keep adding to the Dior archive and to keep its savoir-faire alive. The Bar jacket is also a place to experiment. In the last cruise show they lengthened it, in the first show they shortened it, and they have also slit the back open. Small changes like these let the jacket "go further than you think," while it can still be brought back to its original form. Anderson calls it "the most amazing blank canvas."
A Favorite Dress and the Cigale Bag
The next dress, whose name the transcript does not render clearly, is Anderson's "favorite dress in history," even above the Bar jacket. They find it radical because the top is cut almost the way a kimono is cut, on the flat.
Anderson says they have long been obsessed with its front panel. They drew on it directly for the Cigale bag, exploring how that panel could become a bag structure. For them the dress is a place where "classicism and modernity can meet."
Dior the Businessman
Anderson acknowledges the romance around Dior and his association with the garden. Still, they think the least discussed side of him is that he was "an incredible businessman as a designer." As evidence they point to how he dealt with Hollywood and used product placement, including his work with Hitchcock, and to his understanding that getting clothes onto the right people was part of the marketing.
They also argue that fashion, however serious it gets, needs moments that let go. In Dior's small salon shows, guests smoked while watching 80 looks go by, and Dior would sometimes send out a red dress to wake people up. Anderson calls this "quite camp" in retrospect and says they like it. That world is gone, they note, but something deeply romantic remains about it.
The Juno Dress and the Work of Preservation
Anderson calls the Juno one of Dior's most incredible dresses. It has to be laid flat because its age and construction mean it can no longer go on a mannequin. Speaking of the dress as a person, they say "she's having to lie flat because she's not very well." She was probably worn and enjoyed a great deal, and parts of her are starting to disintegrate.
Even so, Anderson finds it magical. When design is good and captures its moment, they say, "it's hard to beat." The dress leads them to the importance of the Dior Heritage team who protect these pieces. They call that work probably the most important part of Dior, because few brands have a history like this.
Anderson then places the dress in historical context. In their account, the world went through one of the most traumatic moments in modern history after the Second World War, and the aristocracy changed. The British had led the old aristocracy on industrial-revolution wealth. The war devastated Europe, and a new American aristocracy arose, represented by names like Getty and Rockefeller. Dior's clients in this period dressed for occasions. Wealth brought new events to attend, the idea of celebration changed, and "the volume turns up."
This leads Anderson to a personal point about embellishment. In previous jobs they didn't do much of it. At Dior, given the house's history and the embroidery its workshops can produce, embellishment "actually becomes quite addictive." The artisans themselves drive this, Anderson says, because they want to prove they can make anything.
John Galliano's Puffer Jacket
The next object is a puffer jacket by John Galliano for Christian Dior. It belonged to one of the first groups of pieces Anderson asked to see when they joined the house. They praise Galliano's talent for reimagining things. The pockets are "very Dior," and the jacket combines new and old worlds, which Anderson considers very hard to do and the reason they call Galliano a master.
Anderson admits that joining a house with a predecessor like Galliano is "very, very daunting," but says there is a lot to learn from a piece like this. They compare Galliano's approach to Poiret's, looking East at how people dress, and say the result is a kind of "couture utilitarianness."
Anderson calls it a dream piece they would wear themselves, walking to work in jeans and boots, because it carries real attitude. They think it has stood the test of time and is still relevant and modern. They imagine pairing the jacket with the Juno dress and a pair of Converse. The same pieces can also stand on mannequins in museums around the world, and Anderson sees that range as what makes Dior great as a brand. They compare the house to great cinema. It has had ups and downs and multiple casts and crews, and it keeps reinventing itself, which few brands can do.
The First Show: Spectacle, Patience, and Pressure
Anderson then opens a book documenting Christian Dior's very first show, which they say they had never touched before. They love the images of the rooms and wish fashion still had that sense of reverence and spectacle. They feel it has been lost, and the photos show how close guests got to the clothes and how they dressed for the occasion.
They point out the cabine where the models changed. It was far smaller than you would expect, and Anderson jokes that it "makes the backstages at a fashion show look completely obnoxious." The show had 95 looks and probably ran an hour and a half. By contrast, Anderson says, "I can barely get guests to stay for 15 minutes" before they rush out.
Anderson believes Dior was a very emotional person and imagines that the morning of that first show carried enormous pressure, since it was the birth of a brand that did not yet exist. They say every first show is emotional, because you are trying to give birth to a concept and a direction. Visits like this one are a helpful reminder to return to the archive and remember "what is the mission."
Accessories, Lily of the Valley, and Superstition
In the accessories archive, which holds shoes, hats and jewelry, Anderson picks a shoe by Roger Vivier. They like statement shoes and consider Dior and Vivier's shoes among the greatest in history, sculptural objects in themselves. They chose this one for its lily of the valley, a motif everyone associates with Dior.
That motif leads to superstition. Dior was very superstitious, Anderson says, and they are too, "sometimes to the point where it's ridiculous." They like the small good-luck motifs that run through the house: the ladybird, the lily of the valley, and a little star that the team sometimes sneaks onto the soles of shoes. Anderson sees these as storytelling that adds poetry, and finds it humanizing that Dior's own superstitions have carried through the brand's history.
Anderson also shares their own superstitions. Theirs are mostly about magpies. Seeing two is fine, but if they see only one, they have to salute it. They never walk under ladders, consider breaking a mirror the worst, and sometimes knock on their head after a bad thought.
Dior by Dior: A Designer Aware of His Place in Time
In the library, Anderson shows Dior by Dior, Dior's own book. They return to the idea of Dior as a smart marketer who knew how to tell his own story. They also find the book funny, and see in it a man aware of his place in time, which they call one of the most interesting things about him. Reading it, Anderson says, you realize he was human and saw the world very differently from us. They describe the romance around him as "like a Jackie Collins novel, but not."
The Arizona Coat
Back among the garments, Anderson shows a red coat called the Arizona that they love. Its pockets are the ones Galliano referenced on the puffer jacket seen earlier. They have recently been experimenting with how to reinterpret it for couture, and say they could wear this one with jeans too.
They point out a puffed element in the coat and a button Dior returned to often, one also seen on the Bar jacket. According to Anderson, the coat was made one year after it.
Planning the Collection: Sketches, Fabrics, and Process
The last stop is the records of how Dior planned a collection. Sketches are laid out alongside fabric allocations for each look. Anderson calls it a meticulous way of working out an entire collection, because you can see coloration and volume together. They note Dior's frequent return to black and white: pied-de-poule, grisaille, and fine fabric structures. The records also show the embroideries and prints.
These documents matter directly to the current studio. Because the team can see exactly which fabrics were used, many of the shows since Anderson's arrival have involved recreating fabrics, twisting them, or substituting different materials.
Anderson ends by returning to an idea they raised earlier: fashion once had reverence, a slower process, and a preciousness. Looking at Dior's own sketches, they call it "kind of magic." They say the house is lucky that this material, and the dedicated team behind it, has been preserved, so that anyone can see it in the future.
Hi, I'm Jonathan Anderson, and we're here in Paris at Dior Heritage, which holds the collection of Christian Dior, and we're here to show you some of my objects of affection.
We are just at the front of the building. We have this amazing room where you can get things out from the archive. You have to put these gloves on because everything is very precious.
The first piece, obviously, to be really cliché, is the Bar jacket. It really is a pillar of the house at Christian Dior. The first time I saw this piece, I don't know, because you've seen it in so many images, there's two things that happen. One is sometimes the image is what makes it iconic, and sometimes when you actually see it without a human being in it, it actually becomes a different thing. It's not that it's less magical. It becomes more technical.
I think what is great about Dior is that he is a bit of an alchemist because he looks back to be able to reconstruct the future. And I think that's where this piece comes into it. It is really going back into the waistline, which, especially when pre-war everything had become softer at that point, in a weird way, for me shows this idea of resilience. It was nearly like France was back in business or something.
When I do the couture shows, I'm always trying to think we have to ignore the value of it because ultimately it's more about the protection of a craft, so that we then can keep adding to the archive of Dior and at the same time keep the savoir going. I like this idea that it is a way for me to experiment with how you either go up the body or down the body. In the last cruise show, we went longer with it. In the first show, we went higher with it. We slipped the back open. When you do some subtleties in it, it means that it actually can go further than you think, but at the same time, you can bring it back into its own because it's the most amazing blank canvas.
This is the Cigale. As much as I love the Bar jacket, this is my favorite dress in history because I think it is so radical. The way in which it is cut on the top looks how nearly a kimono is cut, where you're cutting on the flat. I've always been obsessed by this front panel. Obviously, I have referred to it to do the Cigale bag because I was very into this idea of how this could be transferred into a bag structure. I just think there's something about it that I feel that where classicism and modernity can meet together.
Dior is the garden. There is a romance to him. As much as that, the thing that I always relate to him with is I actually think the part that's not really spoken enough about Dior is that I think he was an incredible businessman as a designer. And I think he was very smart looking at how he dealt with Hollywood and how he worked with product placement. He's thinking about that process with Hitchcock and how getting it on the right people was part of the marketing.
I think in fashion, as much as we can get very serious about it, there comes a point where you want to make sure there's something that lets go of it. When you think of when Dior did shows in very small salons, and there was smoking and people were watching 80 looks go by, he would sometimes put a red dress to wake people up. It's ultimately quite camp when you look back, and I quite like that part because we don't live in that world anymore, but at the same time there is something deeply romantic about it.
We are here to look at probably one of Dior's most incredible dresses, which is the Juno. It has to lie down like this because it can't actually go on a mannequin anymore because of its age and the way in which it is made. And there it is. Even just looking at it now with you guys, it is such a magical dress. I think when design is really good and when it captures the moment of its time, it's hard to beat.
But she's having to lie flat because she's not very well. She's been probably worn and had a lot of fun in. You can see here that it's starting to disintegrate a bit. But that's what's so important about Dior Heritage, is that we have this amazing team of people who are protecting these pieces. It's probably the most important part of Dior because there are not many brands that have history like this.
After the Second World War, the world goes through one of probably the most traumatic moments in modern-day history. But it is a change of the aristocracy at that period. The British were the pioneers of the aristocracy at that moment. They had made a lot of money through the Industrial Revolution. The war happens, which ravages Europe, and then we have the birth of America and the new aristocracy. So you've got Getty and Rockefeller. And what is interesting about this is that the person going after Dior in that period, it was about occasion. We had occasions to go to, wealth, and the idea of celebration changes. The volume turns up.
In previous jobs, I didn't do huge amounts of embellishment. When you look at the history of Dior and you look at other designers in it, the embroidery that we can do is amazing, and it actually becomes quite addictive because the people that do it are incredibly addictive. They want to prove that they can make anything.
My next object is this incredible puffer jacket by John Galliano for Christian Dior. It was actually one of the first pieces, a group of pieces that I asked the archive to see when I joined. John is just fantastic at how he reimagines things. And I think what is interesting is that the pockets are very Dior. It is something that, for me, has the essence of new and old world meeting in it. And I think this is very, very hard to do. And that's why John is a master.
When you first join a house and you have someone like John Galliano before, it's very, very daunting, but I think there's so much to learn in a piece like this. John is looking at here, you look at people like Poiret, where they are looking to the East in terms of how people are dressing, and I think it creates such couture utilitarianness. It's a dream piece. I think it's something that I would wear myself. I think I would wear this walking to work with jeans and a pair of boots. I think there's something about this piece that just gives such attitude. It stood the test of time. I think it's still incredibly relevant and modern.
This jacket by John could be styled with the Juno, and it could be such a look with a pair of Converse, for example, and it would look great. And at the same time, they can go on mannequins around the world into museums, and we see them as pieces. And that's what's great about Dior as a brand. It's like great cinema. It has everything in it. Ups and downs. It has had multiple cast and crew. It reinvents itself. There's not many brands that can do that.
The next object I'm going to show you is the book de presse, which is for the very first show of Christian Dior. I've actually never touched this one. I always love inside the rooms. I wish fashion was like this today because there is such reverie and spectacle about fashion. We somehow lost that a bit, and you can see how close people got to clothing and how people dressed for it.
What is interesting is in the building you have the cabine, which you can see here. It's incredibly small, where the models got changed, and it's actually way smaller than you think. It makes the backstages at a fashion show look completely obnoxious. The show was 95 looks. It was probably an hour and a half long. I can barely get guests to stay for 15 minutes without racing out.
I think on the morning of the show, I think Dior was a very emotional person. But I think this is the birth of a brand that did not exist. And I think there was a lot of pressure ultimately to make it work. I think every first show is emotional because ultimately you're trying to birth out a concept and idea of where you want to go. And it's quite nice doing this today because it's a nice reminder to come back to the archive and realize what is the mission.
We are now in the accessories archive, which is one of the most beautiful stores that we have. Shoes, hats, jewelry, and many other things. We have this amazing shoe which is by Roger Vivier. I like a statement shoe. And for me, Dior and Vivier create some of the greatest shoes in history. They're sculptural in themselves. And why I picked this one is ultimately lily of the valley is something we all know that is synonymous with Dior.
The great thing is that Dior is very superstitious. I'm incredibly superstitious, sometimes to the point where it's ridiculous. That's what I quite like with Dior, is he has these little motifs when you look at some early shoes or you look at the jewelry and things. You have the ladybird, which is always another symbol of good luck, and you have the lily of the valley, you have the little star that we sometimes sneak into different things on the bottoms of shoes. I think it's something that is storytelling, and it gives a bit of poetry.
The great thing about superstition is that it has carried through the history of Dior somehow. And I quite like that because there's something humanizing in Dior himself because he had that. And I think we all have things that we think are good luck or not good luck. Mine are all about magpies. If I see magpies, if I see two, it's fine. If I don't, I have to see one, I have to salute it. Definitely do not go underneath the ladder. Mirrors breaking is the worst. And then sometimes, for example, if I have a bad thought, I will knock my head out to my grandmother yesterday.
We are here in the library, and I wanted to quickly show you this book, which is Dior by Dior. And I think this goes back to this idea, as much as we see Dior as this designer, that he was a very smart marketeer and very smart at telling his story. You realize that it's kind of funny, Dior, and at the same time he understands telling the story of himself. And he's aware, I think is one of the most interesting things about Dior, of his place in time. You realize that he is human, and you realize that he sees the world in a very different way than we do. There is a romance to him. It's like a Jackie Collins novel, but not.
I wanted to show you in here. This is a coat that I really love. It's called the Arizona. As you can see, these are the pockets that John had referenced on the jacket that we just saw earlier. And it's in this amazing red. And it's something I've been playing with a bit recently to try to see how I could reinterpret this for couture. And it's kind of times code. I could wear this one too with jeans. I think it works. This is an amazing piece. You can see the puffer in it. And once again, you see how he reverts to this button a lot, which we saw in the Bar jacket. This is one year after. And I'm just going to pop it back in.
In this space, we have all these amazing, they roll through, you can get in libraries. And we're now just heading down to see how Dior did the planning of a collection. And it just shows you how he attributed the looks. You have the sketches here. You then have all the fabric allocation here. This is such a meticulous way of working out everything in the collection because you're seeing the coloration, the volume. And as you see here, which Dior really reverts to a lot, is this idea of black and white. He uses a lot of pied-de-poule, grisaille, and a lot of faille. He continues to use this faille structure.
And then if you look here, you can see you have all the different types of embroideries, the print. And it's nice because it's really good for us to then go back into, because we can actually see exactly the fabrics. And a lot of the shows that we have been doing now since the very beginning is really going back in and recreating fabrics or twisting fabrics or using different materials.
Going back to this idea, there was a reverie in fashion, and I think there was a process which was slower, and at the same time I think there was a preciousness to it. It's magic. These are his sketches, and the team here that we have are so dedicated. We're very lucky that it's being preserved ultimately so that anyone can then see it in the future.
Thank you very much, guys, for coming to the Dior archive and Dior Heritage and for following me around and seeing all my objects of affection.
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