All that stays alive knows how to begin again. To evolve — as a person, an idea, a concept, even a brand — one must shed old forms to awaken new ones. In Jonathan Anderson’s first collection for Dior Summer 26 Men’s, the newly-minted creative director distilled that spirit to its most refined expression: a rebirth of the maison, unveiled through eighty looks amid a room reminiscent of Berlin’s velvet-clad Gemäldegalerie.

Anderson has always approached art with reverence — not as decoration, but as a form of dialogue. For him, design is both craft and play, a way of thinking through the hands. For Dior Summer 26, he treats the house like a puzzle: one that must be gently taken apart before it can be made whole again. His process is an act of translation — decoding Dior’s language in order to write it anew. He traces the maison’s lineage through the lens of romanticism, returning to the era that once enchanted Monsieur Dior most deeply: Rococo.

The 18th century whispers through every detail, where archetypes once bound to class and custom are reimagined with tenderness. Donegal tweed — once spun by farmers for warmth — finds its place beside sculpted Bar Jackets, tailcoats, and bourgeois waistcoats. Garments from a time when menswear knew poetry in form are reawakened through subtle nods to Dior: a thread of embroidery, a glint of Diorette charms. The result feels like memory rethreaded — something familiar, yet quietly reborn for the 21st century.

This renewal extends beyond fabric and silhouette. It lives in the faces that wear them. The casting, too, speaks of softness — models chosen not only for beauty, but for the gentleness that lingers in their expression. Under Anderson, Dior’s man is not armoured by elegance but illuminated by emotion. The house’s vision feels grounded in the courage to be tender.

Menswear has long been bound by its own restraint — pragmatic, repetitive, wary of appearing “too pretty.” Perhaps it never needed revolution, only permission. Permission to be playful again. Vulnerable. Unashamedly romantic

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