Jonathan Anderson’s first haute couture rendezvous unfolded at the enchanting Musée Rodin, and it didn’t disappoint. Fresh off his appointment at Dior last year, Anderson opened Paris Couture Week with a show that felt like an idyllic dialogue with Spring.

Moss and cyclamens—delicately planted on the ceiling—predict the show’s poetic trajectory. This accessory doubled as a quiet tribute to John Galliano, who gifted cyclamens to Anderson and marked the ceremonial passing of the creative baton. But these living, green elements were more than just a tribute; they anchored the show’s main point of reference: the depths of Spring.

Photos courtesy of Dior.

Yes, one may think, “Florals for Spring…. groundbreaking?” But pause before you eat your words.

The show notes speak to the rhythms of nature—how it shifts, mutates, and reinvents itself. Haute couture, Anderson suggests, follows that same cadence. His fascination extends to objects marked by time and to materials that carry memory. Couture, to him, is an endangered form of knowledge that survives only through practice and replication. To create it is to sustain it, keeping it alive much like nature itself.

Photos courtesy of Dior.

Buried behind the overt Spring motifs, silhouettes flow sinuously over structured shapes or drape softly around the body, tracing curves and underlining gestures. Realistic 3D flowers are cut from feather-like silks or reduced into dense embroideries. Spring’s bloom is echoed in ballooning tops veiled in net, swelling with quiet drama. 

Photos courtesy of Dior.

Elsewhere, chiffon and organza textures are layered like plumage. Knitwear appears unexpectedly and expands the language of couture. Moulded handbags make their debut in Dior Haute Couture as objects d’art—some crafted from 18th-century French fabrics, reworked and enhanced with embroideries and patchwork.

Photos courtesy of Dior.

If Anderson leaves us with anything, it’s that Spring has never sprung quite like this before, and couture is very much in full bloom.

Feature image by Adrien Dirand.