Dior’s Jonathan Anderson finds his stride with a garden of earthly delights at Paris Fashion Week

PARIS (AP) — The sun was out over the glass-walled runway at the famed Tuileries Garden in the French capital on Tuesday, flooding Jonathan Anderson ‘s fall-winter 2026 collection for Dior with a golden light that invoked Impressionist paintings.

Among the celebrities at Paris Fashion Week packed into the glass walkways around the park’s octagonal basin — dotted with artificial water lilies in a nod to Monet — were Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlize Theron, Jisoo, Priyanka Chopra, Willow Smith, Emily Ratajkowski and Macaulay Culkin.

It was a fitting mood for a collection steeped in flowers, water and the art of being seen.

The greenhouse setting turned the surrounding Parisian strollers into an unwitting audience — an idea Anderson leaned into.

He said he had been thinking about the promenade, about people who dress up to go somewhere, and about his own status as a tourist in his adopted city.

A silhouette coming into focus

What emerged on the runway was Anderson’s most coherent women’s collection for Dior to date.

Deconstructed frock coats, peplum jackets and bustle skirts arrived in candied almond shades, Chantilly lace and metallic jacquards. Shrunken blazers sat above lampshade skirts in baby-soft shearling. Sculptural knits held their shape like origami.

The floral theme was everywhere — but it was developed through silhouette and fabric rather than slapped on literally.

Crinkled cardigans recalled the corolla of a bloom. Asymmetrically fastened skirts and dresses evoked petals. Even the crystal detailing on embroidered jeans carried a botanical echo.

Anderson reprised his Donegal tweed take on the house’s legendary Bar jacket, but made it longer and looser.

The spiral cage dresses that wowed at his recent couture show returned as clouds of soft pleated fabric.

With their houndstooth dark and light checks, hand-pleated jackets and coats showed signs of trompe-l’oeil, a technique to make the object appear three-dimensional.

Dotted Swiss ruffle skirts with long trains offered a youthful riff on Christian Dior’s iconic Junon gown.

There were ivory hammered silk track pants with covered bridal buttons, jeans with ribbon embroidery and plain robe coats worn as dresses — garments rarely given the spotlight on a runway.

Star power and royalty

The celebrity turnout was intense — and so were the regal echoes.

Dior has held its shows at the Tuileries since 2020 as part of a partnership with the adjoining Louvre Museum to help restore one of the oldest public gardens in Paris — originally commissioned by Queen Catherine de’ Medici and later redesigned for Louis XIV as a place to see and be seen.

On Tuesday, Anderson’s designs testified that he is steadily finding his version of that centuries-old tradition. Five collections in, the picture is getting clearer — even if the designer insists it will always remain a moving target.