Dior's Jonathan Anderson is the one person in fashion who won't discuss Taylor Swift's unrevealed wedding dress — even though he designed it.
"It was a big honour," he said. "But no, I can't tell you anything about it.
It will all come out in due course."
Instead, Anderson focused on a different American artist: sculptor Lynda Benglis. Her sensual metal works inspired his latest haute couture collection.
A High-Concept Show at the Rodin Museum
The show took place in a wooden pavilion in the gardens of the Rodin museum. The soundtrack featured the flutter of paper fans along the front row.
Silhouettes seemed liquefied in the city heat. A skirt of silver-foiled petals shimmered like molten lava.
A tailored Bar jacket trailed chiffon threads at the hem like drips of ice-cream.
This is how haute couture operates: a high-rolling play for mass-culture eyeballs and a laboratory for artistic expression.
Evening bags were crafted from fragments of 18th-century Indian chintz fabric.
The collection included an IYKYK reference to Benglis' 1974 self-portrait 'Centrefold', in which she is naked and holding a giant dildo.
The image was blurred out to avoid offending potential clients.
"I think she's a genius. She was well before her time – before anyone's time," Anderson said.
He is upholding predecessor Maria Grazia Chiuri's tradition of featuring female artists. His debut couture collection in January celebrated ceramicist Magdalene Odundo.
Anderson's Dior is razzmatazz with a sideways bent. His strategy of re-energizing the house with offbeat energy is high-risk but working.
In the front row, Sabrina Carpenter wore a coquettish ivory lace cocktail dress. Josh O'Connor sported a deconstructed sheer blazer and sequined cravat.
The first look on the catwalk was a floppy satin shirt with black plisse trousers, shrouded in an oversized shearling shawl and topped with an acorn-shaped bonnet.
Pure glamour came in a silver lamé bustier dress with an outsize bow, a peach silk evening gown with a cowl back, and a sculpted hourglass jacket in silk jacquard embossed with silk ferns.
The finale was a wedding dress, as is traditional at haute couture.
The strapless pearl column was veiled in hand-pleated chiffon embellished with white feather dandelions and embroidered cactus flowers.
It was spectacular — but not the Dior wedding dress everyone wanted to see.
