Throughout his career, whether at JW Anderson, Loewe or now at Dior, ‘creative superdesigner’ (at Dior he manages both womens and mens collections) Jonathan Anderson has approached clothing as a discipline in dialogue with art, craft and material experimentation. 

His fascination with the work of American sculptor Lynda Benglis is not new: during his tenure at JW Anderson, Anderson had already drawn on Benglis’s radical approach to form, captivated by her ability to blur the boundaries between sculpture and gesture, softness and structure. At Loewe, her works were on view as part of the catwalk. At Dior, that dialogue reaches a new level of refinement. For his Haute Couture collection, Anderson placed Benglis’ pioneering exploration of material, movement and transformation at the heart of his vision. Sculptures by the artist were also on view there.

The choice of Benglis was far from a conventional fashion reference. Unlike artists whose work has often been translated into surface decoration or visual motifs (and there were many by the likes of Marc Jacobs in the 2000s for example), Benglis’s practice is rooted in process itself. Since the late 1960s, the American artist has challenged traditional ideas of sculpture, working with unconventional materials including latex, wax, foam, wire mesh and metal to create forms that appear caught between states: liquid becoming solid, movement becoming permanence.

Her sculptures resist the idea of control. Gravity, chance and the physical behaviour of materials become collaborators. Benglis reveal the possibilities of sculpture. This philosophy found a natural counterpart in Anderson’s couture practice, where garments are treated as evolving flexible forms allowing freedom of movements. 

  For Dior, Anderson translated Benglis’s sculptural language into couture, transforming the ateliers into spaces of experimentation where fabric was manipulated through pleating, draping, moulding and embroidery. The collection echoed her fascination with movement and materiality, with fluid silks, metallic surfaces and sculptural embellishments creating garments that existed somewhere between clothing and sculpture.  

One of the most compelling connections came through Benglis’s fascination with ornament and excess, particularly her celebrated Zanzidae: Peacock works, created after her time in Ahmedabad, India. These exuberant sculptures combine feathers, beads, enamel and wire into richly decorative compositions, embracing colour, texture and craftsmanship. Anderson translated this expressive energy into couture through elaborate appliqués, intricate embroidery and sculptural details that appeared almost to grow from the garments themselves. Benglis’s work is held in the permanent collections of leading institutions including MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, SFMOMA, LACMA and the Walker Art Center, cementing her position as one of the most influential sculptors of her generation.

Yet the collection was never a simple homage. Anderson avoided literal references, instead absorbing Benglis’s artistic principles and reinterpreting them through the language of Dior. 

At Dior, this artistic dialogue feels particularly significant. Christian Dior himself maintained close relationships with artists and was deeply connected to the creative circles of post-war Paris. Anderson himself worked with artists  Anthea Hamilton, Joe Brainard (through his estate), Hilary Lloyd, Takuro Kuwata, David Wojnarowicz (through his estate), William Morris and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, bringing their diverse creative languages into conversation with fashion, craft and design. 

Despite its sculptural ambition, the collection retained a remarkable sense of elegance and wearability. Anderson approached couture not as theatrical costume, but as a living form. Silhouettes moved around the body with a sense of freedom, balancing architectural construction with softness. The iconic Dior codes were reconsidered through a more fluid lens, allowing structure and spontaneity to coexist.

In an industry often driven by immediacy and spectacle, Anderson’s Dior collection offered something more enduring: a reflection on the act of making itself. 

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