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Dior Appoints Jonathan Anderson as Design Chief for Women’s Wear and Haute Couture 

A security guard looks out from the store of French luxury goods company Dior on 5th Avenue in New York City, US, May 23, 2025. (Reuters)
A security guard looks out from the store of French luxury goods company Dior on 5th Avenue in New York City, US, May 23, 2025. (Reuters)
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Dior Appoints Jonathan Anderson as Design Chief for Women’s Wear and Haute Couture 

A security guard looks out from the store of French luxury goods company Dior on 5th Avenue in New York City, US, May 23, 2025. (Reuters)
A security guard looks out from the store of French luxury goods company Dior on 5th Avenue in New York City, US, May 23, 2025. (Reuters)

Dior is appointing its menswear designer Jonathan Anderson to also head womenswear designs and haute couture, replacing Maria Grazia Chiuri and widening his role as it seeks to reignite sales, the LVMH-owned label said on Monday.

"Jonathan Anderson is one of the greatest creative talents of his generation. Its unique artistic signature will be a key asset for writing the next chapter of the Dior house's history," LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement.

The French fashion house named Anderson, 40, in April as head of menswear designs, recruiting him from smaller LVMH label Loewe.

The award-winning Irish designer generated buzz around Loewe over the decade he spent at the Spanish label, thanks to quirky designs that caught the attention and praise of fashion critics.

Signature styles under his tenure include baggy, barrel-legged jeans priced at 800 euros ($909.92) and the compact Puzzle handbag, which sells for around 3,000 euros.

Anderson, whose departure from Loewe was announced in March, is one of several new high profile designers taking over some of the world's biggest fashion labels amid a wide-sweeping industry overhaul, including Chanel and Gucci.

The sector is struggling to pull out of a prolonged slump, weighed down by China's property crisis and economic uncertainty in the United States.

Top luxury houses are betting on new design direction to help rekindle interest from shoppers, who have pulled back on fashion as prices rise.

In his new role, Anderson succeeds Chiuri, 61, who was recruited in 2016. The first female creative director at the label, Chiuri relayed feminist messages and showcased artwork at her runway shows, which featured modern renditions of house classics, including Dior's famous, nipped-waist bar jackets, adding fluidity and sometimes a sporty flair to feminine gowns.

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Fashion

Hermes Shows Biker Looks in Dusky Colors for Fall/Winter Collection in Paris

A model presents a creation for Hermes for the Women's Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Women Fashion Week, in Paris, on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
A model presents a creation for Hermes for the Women's Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Women Fashion Week, in Paris, on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
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Hermes Shows Biker Looks in Dusky Colors for Fall/Winter Collection in Paris

A model presents a creation for Hermes for the Women's Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Women Fashion Week, in Paris, on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
A model presents a creation for Hermes for the Women's Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Women Fashion Week, in Paris, on March 7, 2026. (AFP)

‌Hermes designer Nadege Vanhee took inspiration from the ambience of twilight for a fall/winter collection featuring fluid leather coats, zip-front mini dresses, and biker shorts.

Guests entering the Garde Republicaine, the sprawling barracks of Paris' mounted gendarmes, stepped onto a floor of thick moss extending across the show space.

Models emerged from a luminous ‌circular opening ‌in the far wall evoking the ‌moon ⁠and marched along ⁠a winding raised catwalk, above the vegetation.

The looks came in dusky blue and green tones, with pops of orange, oxblood and yellow.

Tight dresses in dark leather had asymmetrical zips revealing a contrasting ⁠shirt underneath, while long brown overcoats ‌featured huge ‌sheepskin collars.

Aviator jackets and trench coats were paired ‌with glossy cycle shorts made out ‌of lambskin.

Ostrich leather was used throughout for jackets, jodhpurs, and an orange biker-inspired jumpsuit that was zipped up the front and belted ‌at the waist.

Tailoring featured double-breasted jackets and cigarette trousers in browns ⁠and ⁠iridescent burgundy.

Vanhee has been womenswear creative director since 2014 for Hermes, which caters to the ultra-wealthy and tightly controls access to its products, with years-long waiting lists for its most exclusive handbags.

Hermes is one of many major luxury brands showing at Paris Fashion Week, which started on Monday and runs through March 11, with Chanel and Louis Vuitton catwalks still to come.

Fashion

Victoria Beckham Shows Sheer Dresses and Sharp Suits at Paris Fashion Week

FILED - 03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. Photo: Matt Crossick/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. Photo: Matt Crossick/PA Wire/dpa
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Victoria Beckham Shows Sheer Dresses and Sharp Suits at Paris Fashion Week

FILED - 03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. Photo: Matt Crossick/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. Photo: Matt Crossick/PA Wire/dpa

Victoria Beckham presented sculptural gowns in sheer fabrics, tightly cut suits and voluminous coats in Paris on Friday for a fall/winter 2026 collection that played with shape and texture.

Dresses in dark blues and greens featured bodices of three-dimensional rosettes, a motif that repeated across skirts, contrasting with sober suits in navy and ‌black, said Reuters.

Large overcoats ‌were paired with sheer ‌white ⁠skirts or drainpipe trousers, ⁠while knitwear had giant collars and cut-outs revealing the models' backs.

According to the show notes, the collection was inspired by the work of Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka, famous for ⁠her cubist portraits of aristocrats in ‌sumptuous clothing.

Victoria Beckham's ‌husband David and the couple's children Romeo, Cruz, ‌and Harper were on the ‌front row. Their eldest, Brooklyn, was conspicuously absent after he went public in January with accusations against his parents, laying bare a family ‌feud for the first time.

Beckham founded her brand, which sells ⁠dresses ⁠between $950 and $2,500, in 2008 and launched Victoria Beckham Beauty in 2019.

Guests at the show were gifted bottles of her recently launched perfume, Portofino '97, inspired by a holiday the British couple took when they were still a secret item.

Paris Fashion Week, which started on Monday and runs through March 11, features big-name brands including Chanel, Dior, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and Saint Laurent.

Fashion

Italy's Agnona Brand: Lamb among the Fashion Wolves

Italy's Agnona Brand: Lamb among the Fashion Wolves
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Italy's Agnona Brand: Lamb among the Fashion Wolves

Italy's Agnona Brand: Lamb among the Fashion Wolves

At Milan Fashion Week, headlines go to splashy names, over-the-top fashions and celebrities posing by catwalks.

But behind the scenes, Italy's smaller and medium-sized brands, the often family-owned lifeblood of the industry, are doggedly defending their craft, striving to keep alive long traditions of excellence.

One of them, Agnona, began in 1953 as a wool mill in Italy's northern Piedmont region, producing luxurious textiles in natural fabrics like cashmere, lambswool and angora that supplied top haute couture houses in Paris, from Christian Dior to Givenchy to Yves Saint Laurent.

Acquired in 1999 by the Ermengildo Zegna Group, Agnona switched from textiles to apparel and was sold in 2020 to Zegna family members Stefano Aimone, the chief executive and creative director, and his father Roberto.

Agnona, which is opening its first flagship store in Milan next month, envisions a global network of owned and franchised stores in future.

Stefano Aimone sat down with AFP to explain the challenges facing smaller names amid competition from the big fashion conglomerates, changes in consumer habits and the race towards retail.

- 'Overwhelmed by demand' -

"If you want to aim for quality and certain types of craftsmanship you have to stay here in our Italian boot. But many companies have closed. Many closed because of Covid, post-Covid they were absorbed into larger groups because costs went up, prices fluctuated, they had periods of no sales -- no work at all -- followed by excess work. Financially they didn't have the reserves.

"The businesses that remain are now extremely overwhelmed by demand from the big French groups and the Italian brands.

"The problem isn't just cut-and-sew, it's also the production of materials, because everything cascades down... the dye houses that are still around are clogged up, which creates delays, and delays weaken the quality of the entire industrial process."

- 'Made in Italy' -

"I'd say 'Made in Italy' is becoming relatively less important to them (customers); the customer now identifies more with the brand itself, with its values, with what the brand represents...

"Made in Türkiye, Made in Italy, Made in France -- it can be important, but it's definitely not as important as it once was, because brands have been very active in communicating many other values they embody, which provide justification beyond geography.

"And in a way that's right, because a brand isn't just its product -- it's also what it stands for and what it does beyond the product itself."

- 'Sowing seeds' -

"We're just under 15 million euros in revenue but we expect to reach 20 million and beyond within three years.

"We still have many markets that we haven't even started talking to, for example, all of China, the entire Middle East, all of Latin America, the whole APAC region including Australia.

"Since we took over the brand, there have been years of rebuilding: not only rebuilding our premises -- the industrial site and the headquarters -- but working on the collection.

"We introduced menswear, so we focused heavily on internal work, and we didn't necessarily want to push revenue right away. Because if you go out to market without a solid product, you risk ruining everything you're trying to achieve -- it can be counterproductive.

"So those were years of sowing seeds, and now that we're ready, we're beginning to address the global market."