‘Jonathan Anderson, the creative force behind ‘JW Anderson’, and ‘UNIGLO’ is also now the new Artistic DIRECTOR of ‘Dior Hommes

Jonathan Anderson, the acclaimed Northern Irish designer and creative force behind JW Anderson, has officially been named the new Artistic Director of Dior menswear. The company is owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault who is the Chairman and CEO of LVMH  a French luxury goods conglomerate that also owns brands like Louis Vuitton and Fendi. Anderson is the 9th Designer to have followed Christian Dior, and aside from their design talents the one thing all 10 of them also had in common is the fact they were all gay  (either closeted or publicly out) except for maybe Raf Simons: the Gaydar committee is still out on him.

Anderson very definitely has a very different background from all the Europeans that preceded him in this role.  He was born in Derry during the height of the Troubles, and grew up surrounded by the daily realities of conflict. “In the morning, my father would check his car before he started the engine, and we had to go through checkpoints to get to school,” he recalled to the magazine L’Étiquette. “There was always a sense of underlying violence, but life carried on.”  This writer has family in Ulster (Northern Ireland) so is equally shocked and in total admiration on how Anderson prospered against all these odds and managed to establish roots that would let him be his own man 

At the age of 19, after a stint in Washington DC he enrolled in the National Youth Theatre in London and decided he wanted to be an actor. But that wasn’t to be his fate,  and as most of us gay men can relate to, his ‘new identity’ started when he realized he was in fact gay. Then he became totally obsessed with James Dean……which was routine  for most gay menin those days!  LOL

Now as he is leading Dior’s menswear division, Jonathan Anderson will bring a refreshingly queer, subversive energy to one of fashion’s most storied houses. “I grew up in Northern Ireland. I’m queer. There’s nothing more queer. I am proud to be queer,” he told writer Evan Ross Katz in a separate interview. This sense of identity, shaped by place and politics, continues to infuse his work with meaning and depth.

Of course if you a film buff you may unwittingly be familar with Anderson’s work as his connection to queer storytelling has also extended beyond the runway. He recently collaborated with acclaimed Italian director Luca Guadagnino as costume designer on Challengers, and later for the film Queer staring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.

So tempted to own some of his designs?  Well you will need to wait 6 months to see his first Dior Collection, BUT meanwhile you can shop his own JW Anderson Collection at https://jwanderson.com/ Plus if you love his style but cannot afford it , there’s realy good news as he also designed  a special Summer 2025 Collection for UNIGLO

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