The Magic of Pleating at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Couture

When Jonathan Anderson started at Dior, he dove headlong into the brand’s vast archives, creating collections that borrowed broadly from the house’s past, while attempting to bring it’s oldest codes and traditions into a more modern context. It was a fruitful approach that gave him time and space to experiment with what exactly it means to be Dior. As his tenure progresses, however, Anderson is increasingly looking beyond the House’s history, putting what he has leaned into conversation with the world at large and, in the case of his latest couture collection, with the work of contemporary American sculptor Lynda Benglis.

“Many of [Berglis’] works begin in two-dimensional materials that are transformed, through knotting, pleating or moulding, into three,” read the show’s notes. “The art of couture enacts a similar shift: fabric is given sculptural form, accentuated when worn. Jonathan Anderson takes this connection as a starting point, elaborating on the physical gestures of hand-plissé, knotting and draping. The surfaces of Benglis’s works also come into play: simulated by the ateliers in metallic, iridescent, encrusted or paper-like fabrics. The illusion of chicken wire is created in soft silver netting.”

Anderson also took inspiration from the artist’s longstanding relationship with Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India — specifically her Peacock series, begun in the late 1970s and inspired by the birds she saw whilst staying at the Sarabhai family estate in Ahmedabad, which Anderson interpreted in brightly-colored floral and beaded embellishments seen throughout the collection.

Indian craft itself became an even broader focaus of the collection, specifically the 18th-century tradition of chintz. Those finely-woven cottons, that were typically hand-painted or block-printed, had a profound and lasting impact on European decorative arts and inspired Anderson to utilize antique fragments of chintz and indiennes, sourced from a specialist dealer, to adorn Petit Dînerand mini Lady Dior bags.

Anderson also took inspiration from Ahmedabad’s lush landscape, juxtaposing it’s relative natural abundance with the arid climate and crystalline air of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Benglis keeps a home and studio to this day.

Check out the full collection below.