In two weeks’ time in Paris, Irish designer Jonathan Anderson will make his much-heralded debut as creative director of Dior, the most famous fashion house in the world, with his first collection of men’s wear. His appointment will bring all the collections – menswear, womenswear and haute couture – under the wing of one designer for the first time since the death of founder Christian Dior in 1957.
Dior himself came to Dublin in 1950 to open the Dior boutique in Brown Thomas. A jewel in the crown of fashion conglomerate LVMH’s 16 fashion brands with a huge global reach, Dior quadrupled sales to more than €9 billion in 2023 but saw them decrease to €8.7 billion in 2024. Given the current slowdown in the luxury sector, which in France contributes more than 4 per cent of the country’s GDP, Anderson’s role will be challenging.
If Anderson also continues his own brand JWA and his long-established collaboration with Uniqlo, that will amount to 18 collections a year, making him, at the age of 41, fashion’s most outstanding and prolific designer.
“He plays by his own rules – fearlessly,” Anna Wintour of Vogue has said of him. “He knows what people want before they know what they want,” observes Paris-based Irish couturier Sean Byrne. “He has created a universe for himself which a lot of designers can’t do very well.”
Jonathan William Anderson was born in Magherafelt, Co Derry in 1984, eldest son of the celebrated former Irish rugby captain and coach Willie Anderson, a farmer’s son from Sixmilecross in Co Tyrone, and his wife Heather Buckley, a teacher. Anderson’s younger brother Thomas, a lawyer, works with him as operations director and his sister Chloe is a pharmacist. They are a close-knit family.
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Jonathan’s talent, drive and love of drama were evident from an early age, as well as a strong business sense, his father has recalled.His mother is the daughter of a talented English textile designer, Jim Buckley, who came to work in Northern Ireland and whom Jonathan has always credited as a huge influence in his life.
After leaving the local Protestant grammar school where he was diagnosed as dyslexic, Anderson studied acting in New York – “full-on Stanislavski for two years” – before dropping out and returning to Dublin where he landed a job in Prada menswear in Brown Thomas.
That period also saw him come out as gay. At a recent award ceremony at Trinity College Dublin, he raised laughter describing how much he enjoyed partying in Dublin at the time, asking: “and does that club called The George still exist?”
In the store, his imaginative merchandising attracted the attention of Prada’s right-hand woman, the late Manuela Pavesi, who offered him a job in London. With her encouragement, he applied to every fashion college in Britain “and every single one turned me down”. An offer finally came from the London College of Fashion at the then newly established menswear course.
When he graduated in 2005 with first-class honours, he started styling and consulting, rebranding a luxury British underwear company Sunspel while his sell-out collaborations with Topshop, Aldo and Swarovski marked him out as one to watch. With financial support from his family, he launched his first menswear collection in 2008, becoming quickly known for his groundbreaking street style aesthetic which combined creativity with commercial appeal.
His shows, upending conventional notions of male/female attire, always attracted attention. “Clothing makes people question identity. Their codes question gender – why should buttons be on different sides for men than women?” he once queried.
Andrew Bell, an Irish designer who now works with the Polene handbag brand in Paris, recalls working with Anderson, one of 17 interns in the summer of 2013, as JWA was expanding. “It was five-six days a week, 12-hour days on menswear, so it was super intense. He was moody, intense, a perfectionist, maybe not the warmest, but a visionary, extremely cultured and well read. He allowed us freedom to explore and experiment which was quite unique for a designer at the time.”
That collection for men, with its skirts, medieval-style tunics with ruffled boots and boiled wool tops “was such a statement of masculinity”, says Bell. He describes Anderson’s managerial skills and leadership qualities as “like an orchestra conductor who can synthesise discordant harmonies that work. He is a true creative director”.
Anderson’s big break came that year when LVMH took a 46 per cent stake in his brand and hired him to helm the Madrid-based leatherwear brand Loewe. Behind the deal was Delphine Arnault, daughter of LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault. She is now chief executive of Dior so her association with Anderson has been a long one.
As the fashion world learned how to pronounce the name Loewe (’low–ehvey’), Anderson immediately became involved in every aspect of its rebranding, aiming to turn it into a cultural rather than a fashion brand. Under his stewardship from 2014 to 2024, the sleepy Spanish luxury brand (its sales in 1996 hovered around $2 million) was revived and turned into a global superstar business of $2 billion.
I am very happy for Jonathan and his new appointment. He has made stimulating and exciting work over the last decade and I am looking forward to seeing that energy at Dior
— Simone Rocha
His first bag, the Puzzle, based on an origami construction, became – and remains – a best seller. One of his proudest achievements was establishing the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, an annual award that recognises excellence among makers.
His witty designs made headlines – whether pigeon bags, heirloom tomato-inspired clutches, upside-down rose-heeled stilettos, balloon sandals or, more recently, beautiful hooped floral dresses for spring 2025.
His collaborations with global superstars and celebrities tend to fire up the internet: Rihanna, whose red leather corset at the 2023 Super Bowl revealed her pregnancy; Beyoncé’s see-through catsuit with black hand motifs for her Renaissance tour, or his costumes for Zendaya for Luka Guadagnino’s movie Challengers last year, are just some examples.
His campaigns are always talking points, notably the one with then 88-year-old Maggie Smith modelling one of his celebrated Puzzle bags in October 2023. His makeover of a post-Bond Daniel Craig in the Loewe menswear winter 2024 campaign in cargo trousers, leather jacket, chunky boots with a multicoloured handknit decorated with a poppy abstract print by US artist Richard Hawkins was described by GQ as “kooky, eclectic and really f**king cool”.
According to Bell, Anderson is “obsessed with the zeitgeist and so good at encapsulating the moment. He is now head of the biggest fashion brand in the world. Whatever he does is going to be super exciting.”
Irish designer Simone Rocha says: “I am very happy for Jonathan and his new appointment. He has made stimulating and exciting work over the last decade and I am looking forward to seeing that energy at Dior.”
Another Irish designer, Sorcha O’Raghallaigh, has remained a fan since she and Anderson were selected for Create, a showcase for design talent in Ireland, in its first year in Brown Thomas in 2011. “On every aspect of Loewe, he has been strong – the imagery, the campaigns and exciting pieces on the runway. His accessories are always on point. I still cherish a pair of ballerina shoes with ankle ribbons and gold hourglass heels bought when I was working in Italy. I can’t wait to see what he will do at Dior," O’Raghallaigh says.
An avid art collector and voracious reader, Anderson’s cultural references are wide and all-embracing. The pale pastel shades in his collection for spring 2022, for instance, were based on his viewing of a newly restored 15th century Pontormo painting in Florence. He regularly collaborates with artists he admires.
His ability to combine both the avant-garde and the commercial remains consistently his forte. “I am always trying to find subtlety in newness. I am always curious about other people’s creativity. I have two incredible teams and if you have the right people around you, they prevent you from blowing up. Some have been with me for 11 years, some for 15 years. I can be tough, but I always hire people that I admire and have potential. I want people to challenge me and feel able to express themselves. I don’t like yes people,” he said in a recent interview with Bella Freud,
Former womenswear director at Brown Thomas, Shelly Corkery, reckons he will widen the appeal of Dior while keeping its DNA. “He has a good commercial eye, is a visionary and, like Prada, pushes boundaries. There is always novelty in his collections. With his Loewe logo denim, little vests and T-shirts that young people could afford, he widened its demographic. He will modernise Dior. He will have more fun with the brand and widen the ready to wear so that a younger customer can buy into it.”
A gifted communicator, with the voice of a trained actor (which he is) Anderson is a storyteller, loquacious, always adept at articulating his ideas. He spoke frankly and thoughtfully to Bella Freud in a recent interview about his background and his approach to fashion, and he described how his mother narrowly escaped the Omagh bombing in 1998.
“Growing up, the North of Ireland was a complex place to live and it’s important for me that I did grow up there and it helps me understand what I am today. The great thing about Ireland is storytelling and young people are curious, want to know you and that you believe in what you are selling, so you have to prove that you are not selling a sterile dream – otherwise it gets very corporate,” he said.
Christian Dior himself was famously superstitious, believing in signs and symbols. Predicting the future is what great fashion designers do. Willie Anderson in his autobiography, Crossing the Line, tells a story of how a younger Jonathan, given the intense pressure around one of his early shows, decided holy water might give it a boost.
“There wasn’t a lot of that around the house, but [Catholic] friends rode to the rescue delivering enough to float a small pleasure cruiser. Heather was on hand when the models were getting dressed. ‘Jonny, will I sprinkle a bit on each model or how do you want to do this?’ she asked. ‘It’s already sorted Mum,’ he replied, ‘It’s in the steam irons so we can spread it!’”
