This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the fashion world. Sign up here to get it free.
Skinny jeans and shimmery beaded tops. Reptilian Cuban-heeled boots and cashmere-knit satchels. Dress-length sweaters and polo shirts adorned with spangly epaulets. Cocoon-like couture parkas and bombers. Tiny blazers and cable-knit tailcoats. Velour cargo pants and a fur-lined ski jacket. Lots and lots of bright yellow wigs. On Wednesday of Paris Fashion Week, Jonathan Anderson stuffed all that and more in a cannon and shot it down the Dior runway in a triumphant argument for righteously weird menswear.
“For me, fashion shows are about showing ideas,” Anderson said at a preview of his fall 2026 Dior Men’s collection. And there were a lot of ideas this time around. After a debut that established a baseline of aristo-prep codes and supercharged menswear’s prep renaissance, Anderson’s follow-up felt like a smart but snarling reaction: to rules, to trends, to what we might have thought his Dior would look like.
At a preview, Anderson described the origins of this restless idea of style that jolted Paris Fashion Week. The designer is a master of balancing high concept and desirability, collaging his multifarious curiosities together—from obscure artists to galaxy brain thoughts about things like “formality”—until they cohere into a radical, timely statement.
How Anderson lands on a look is always fascinating, and particularly this season, which convincingly captured the angst of fashion kids who get dressed with the same kaleidoscopic energy that fuels his own creativity. On his mind was a cast of punks putting on various characters by pillaging disparate sartorial traditions—from Christian Dior to French couturier Paul Poiret to the skinny, sleazy silhouette of experimental indie singer-songwriter Mk.gee—and throwing the odd combination together with a flair of DIY formality.
“It’s just about instinctive ideas that I feel that I want to kind of explore,” Anderson said. “I don’t want it to end up being a formula. I want to have a bit of fun with it.”
Here’s a breakdown of what was on Anderson’s mental moodboard for the rangy, radical Dior Men’s collection that earned the designer another standing ovation.
What does Mk.gee have to do with Dior?
Indie rock stars haven’t haunted the halls of Dior since the Hedi Slimane era, so when Anderson invoked the young New Jersey-born experimental guitar star, it felt like someone saying that Cameron Winter was the newest muse of Chanel. And indeed, Mk.gee was all over the show, even if the low-key, long-haired Justin Bieber collaborator didn’t make an appearance himself. Anderson is a self-professed Mk.gee “superfan,” and used two of his records in the show soundtrack. He also borrowed some of Mk.gee’s sleazy style cues, explaining that when they met, the 29-year-old was cocooned in layers of puffers, with a “leaner silhouette on the bottom,” referring to Mk.gee’s penchant for skinny jeans.