Film noir revisited for Dior Cruise 2027

Jonathan Anderson invokes the Hollywood dream in Los Angeles for his Dior Cruise Collection. The creative director draws inspiration from the femme fatale played by Marlène Dietrich in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Stage Fright. In negotiating her role, she famously posed a single condition: “No Dior, no Dietrich”.

A tribute to the Maison’s longstanding relationship with cinema, the Cruise show took place in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard. The story in a story set in the City of Angels features a cast of characters infused by a Dior ethos. A rosette-embellished buttercup yellow dress sets the tone for a collection featuring a recurring floral refrain all the way to shoes. A luminous orange dress evokes a field of California poppies. A red dress held at the waist by an outsized flower is a nod to Christian Dior always putting a red dress in his collections.

Bespoke headpieces by Philip Treacy elevate the men’s looks, their feathers forming a weightless typography. A Dior Gray wool flannel coat appears striped with the geometric shadows of Venetian blinds – an echo of film noir.  Shirts designed in collaboration with artist Ed Ruscha, long an astute observer of Los Angeles, unite the mundane with the city’s grandeur. The everyday becomes couture, including jeans that have been ripped and then embroidered with fine silver chains that imitate strands of cotton. In the shadowy atmosphere, sequined accessories from earrings to minaudières become dazzling supporting characters. New Saddle bags channel American vintage car codes, including car key charms. As fiction fades to reality, the film credits roll against the backdrop of the unique golden California light.