A "mystery" that suddenly appeared on the timeline, and the gaze of the actor
Just recently, news enveloped the global fashion and film timelines in absurd confusion and curiosity: Dior's sudden announcement of a two-year partnership with the independent cult film studio A24
The combination of a traditional haute couture house and the guru of modern cult cinema is unusual enough, but Aidan Zamiri's electrifying concept video was even more enigmatic. Top actors like Sabrina Carpenter and Josh O'Connor are all lined up in the exact same outfit as Jonathan Anderson's personal clothing—checkered shirts, jeans, and sneakers—and "all playing the role of Jonathan Anderson." Even Jonathan Anderson himself is casually blended in as "Jonathan."
Despite the public's confusion and questioning of "What exactly are we being shown?", I suspect that Jonathan's background—the physical fact that he once aspired to be an actor at a drama school in London—is influencing the background of this surreal and absurd production
For him, clothing is not merely a product. It is a theatrical device that forces performers into specific "roles (personas)" and overwrites their identities. The video, which satirizes the designer myth, is a cold, absurd drama of identity, showing how "the boundary between real and fake disappears the moment you put on the same outfit." He quietly confronts us with the sober reality that every human being is merely wearing the costume of a social role and playing the part of "someone," using an A24-esque multiverse framework
The embroidery of "The Wildcat" and a mirror of a fading privileged class
Jonathan's approach of "using cult fiction to expose the structure of reality" is thoroughly ingrained as a poison in every detail of the products he develops for Dior. The prime example of this is the "Book Tote" series, which is inspired by first editions of literary works
The model, which features an intricate embroidery reproduction of the first edition cover of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel "The Leopard (Il Gattopardo)" on a giant canvas bag, functions as a true intellectual trap
"The Leopard" depicts the collapse of the old regime in Sicily and the melancholy of the fading aristocracy amidst the rise of the new bourgeoisie. The famous line from the play, "For everything to remain the same, everything must change," is also a metaphor for the fashion cycle itself, which forces constant consumption
The modern wealthy and affluent collect luxury bags. They own them as "refined luxury," but in reality, what they possess is nothing more than a cynical announcement that "they are a privileged class (the wildcat) that is on the verge of extinction." Jonathan creates the finest works of art that satisfy the wealthy's need for recognition, while simultaneously using the supreme mirror of literature to reflect the class emptiness of those who wear them
Andresen's illusion and the reality exposed by the cult
Here, the seemingly unrelated collaboration of "Dior x A24" mentioned at the beginning takes on a powerful magnetic field, connecting them into a single thread
In A24's iconic cult film "Midsommar," the actor who portrayed the gruesome destruction of the body amidst the madness of the midnight sun was Björn Andrésen, who had previously symbolized the innocence of fashion and film as Tadzio, the "most beautiful boy in the world," in Luchino Visconti's film "Death in Venice."
There are many stories that Visconti himself was bourgeois and behaved very arrogantly on set, but I think the most appalling thingis the extremely brutal sexual exploitation of minors that this master Visconti once carried out in the name of "aesthetics." Andrésen's body, consumed as an object of that desire and whose life was irreversibly destroyed, undergoes an absurd deconstruction by A24 half a century later.
And the embroidery on the first edition of Visconti's "The Leopard," which he considered his greatest masterpiece, is now being consumed by the wealthy as a Dior bag
The series of "enigmatic absurdities" presented by Jonathan and A24 are not mere gimmicks aimed at generating buzz. They represent a profound desire as artists to confront the cruel realities that people are reluctant to face—the decline of beauty, the emptiness of class, the uncertainty of identity—through the filter of sophisticated fiction (cult-like productions and beautiful couture)
Jonathan's ruthless approach of lining up everything from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to "Les Liaisons dangereuses," "In Cold Blood," and "The Leopard" as equally flat products is not a scorn for consumer society, but rather a supremely elegant poison directed at the superficial consumption of the timeline, suggesting that "true reality (essence) can only be found beyond the door of absurd drama (fiction)."
I hope this partnership will go beyond mere promotion and include costume and support for events at Cherry Lane Theatre, which is under the A24 umbrella, as well as support for students who will nurture the next generation of artists