Having launched his Dior woman with a bang in his debut show last season, Jonathan Anderson is quietly building out her wardrobe.

For his pre-fall line, he translated the radical volumes of his conceptual runway pieces into outfits that played with proportion on a more intimate scale. 

Take his new jeans, as full as pleated skirts. Made of ultra-lightweight faded denim, they grounded his multiple takes on the Bar jacket, which came cropped or elongated, plain or densely textured, and even stretched into coats. 

“It just brings a contemporary edge to it, and I think it gives a different attitude to the Bar jacket,” Anderson said of the outsized denim, which nods to Gen Z’s predilection for what the French call “elephant leg” pants. “We have established the girl, and now we are expanding the wardrobe.”

Anderson cautioned from the start that his vision for Dior would unfold over several seasons. With this lineup, he sought to bring into focus some of his key codes, without settling on a single expression.

“Clothing is evolving and is changing, and I feel like Dior has got the capacity to invite multiple types of women in. For me, Dior is a very inclusive brand in that way,” he explained. 

There were nods to the archive, but nothing too literal. Anderson cited the Arizona trapeze coat from 1948 as a key influence, but his versions were deconstructed to the point of abstraction. They included a chocolate brown jacket with a loosely draped shawl collar, and double-face striped blanket coats secured with hat pins.

The designer stuck to his comfort zone with craft-intensive looks like a Bar jacket woven from multicolored ribbons and paired with folded balloon pants, which should appeal to fans of his cerebral designs for Loewe. Quirky knits, including a ribbed blue cardigan shaped like a tailcoat, struck the right balance between creative and commercial. 

Where Anderson is still finding his feet is with the kind of romantic, feminine designs that fueled Dior’s rapid growth under his predecessor Maria Grazia Chiuri. 

His draped silk scarf dress re-embroidered with laser-cut floral motifs begged for closer inspection, and slipdresses underlaid with stiff tulle had an uncomplicated femininity. But Anderson’s red carpet designs have proved more polarizing.

He doubled down on voluminous, side-knotted designs, including a pistachio green version of the bustier gown worn by brand ambassador Mia Goth to the recent Governor’s Awards in Los Angeles. Pointy cleavage dresses, swept up into a side bow, offered an edgy take on that ‘50s throwback, moiré silk.

Anderson said he’s enjoyed expanding his register, with the help of Dior’s workshops, as he prepares to show his first haute couture collection in January.

“I like it, because it’s not something that I would initially be drawn to, so for me, it challenges my idea of how to make things as light as possible,” he said. “I want the exercise to be different than my previous job, but I don’t want to rush at it. I really believe that you cannot lock down an entire aesthetic in nine months.”

Ready or not, his first designs are already on display at La Galerie Dior, the permanent exhibition space at the brand’s historic flagship in Paris, alongside those of all his predecessors. How does he feel about that? “Very scary. Very intimidating,” Anderson demurred.