The Tamesis
Portrait of Annie Leibovitz. Fashion photos by Stef Mitchell.
Late Friday afternoon on a quiet street in Paris, the light outside was pale and fading as Jonathan Anderson sat at a large desk in his office, sifting through the fragments of his future. “What are we going through?” he asked.
His design director, Alberto Dalla Colletta, reviewed the day’s fashion decision points with surgical focus before turning to the exigencies of women’s ready-to-wear. “This is the dress we repaired,” he said, flipping through a stack of papers. “It’s becoming more and more important, which I think is interesting.”
“The back is good,” Anderson said briskly, then nodded to the next piece. Anderson, a tall, tough 41-year-old with auburn hair and a rich Irish baritone voice, is the new head of one of the most powerful positions in fashion: that of creative director of Dior. When his appointment was announced last year, there was excitement across the industry. He worked at Loewe for 11 years, during which time he energized the field with a creative eclectic style that spanned fashion history, while his own interests brought new appeal to the market. Remarkably, he did this while leading his own London label, JW Anderson, which is now 18 years old. His debut couture show in February made the most of Dior’s extensive expertise, delivering a spring-like explosion of flower-like volumes.
“He could go in any direction — I don’t think his designs look like one thing,” said Jennifer Lawrence, one of the first people to wear an Anderson Dior gown on the red carpet. “Normally, you might get three sketches, and they’re all in the same universe. For Jonathan, it looked like 25 different designers sending me 25 different options. His range continues to amaze me.”
Dara Coletta moved on to the next thing, with a vague apology in her voice. “The color doesn’t matter to me. Brown is kind of—”
“You know, actually, it might be nice to try something a little bit brown. gold,Anderson said without hesitation.
“Oh, wow. Okay.”
“It might be weird,” Anderson said, turning his head to one side.
A bag emblazoned with “James Joyce’s Ulysses” sits on the mantelpiece at the end of the office – part of a series of book bags created by Anderson – while a manual typewriter and fruit-shaped candles sit on his desk. Eight wheeled panels are randomly arranged in the center of the room and feature images of the ongoing advertising campaign. Marked calicoes hang from the mannequins and there are two hangers around the table. Anderson’s appointment is exciting partly because of its stakes: He is the first designer since Christian Dior to lead all couture collections, including women’s, men’s and haute couture, including bags and shoes: now one of the biggest fashion houses in Paris, launching 10 heavyweight collections a year. The meeting was counterpoint and moved at breakneck speed.
“So here’s the other reference you gave us,” Darla Colletta said. “We’re going to try to make a jacquard by cutting all the fringes like this.”
Anderson ran his hands through his hair and stared at the page. His working attitude was generally that of a man waiting outside the operating room of a country hospital for news from the doctor. As usual, he has a pile of personal belongings resting on his left elbow, as if he’d dumped a bag on the table: an iPhone, a coffee mug, a bottle of Evian, a case of earbuds, a box of Tic Tacs, a pack of cigarettes, a small measuring tape, and a bright green zippered coin bag that reads “Dumb as a Dream” (a collaboration between Loewe and the artist Richard Hawkins).
