The New Balance of Dior Homme's SS27 Jonathan Anderson defines his masculine New Look

After a 2026 that was a whirlwind for the designer with his relentless succession of shows, Jonathan Anderson seems to have found, with the Dior Homme SS27 collection, his own equilibrium and, above all, his own silhouette. Where in the two previous shows (counting Pre-Fall 2026 as a continuation of the first show) Anderson had tried every possible card and style, likely to test the waters, this latest show displayed far greater decisiveness: less eccentricity and more focus.

The Dior man (ephebe?) is aristocratic and nonchalant, living amphibiously across different and overlapping historical eras, as if Barry Lyndon or Mr. Darcy had washed up on a California beach.

This newfound stylistic discipline was articulated around the tension between form and fabric: knitwear and outerwear featuring the shawl lapels typical of evening wear and smoking jackets, but reimagined in canvas, distressed denim or wool; as well as nineteenth-century redingotes in lightweight cotton - in some cases in poplin, like a shirt - or suede paired with very soft tailored trousers and ripped jeans.

Of course, there was no shortage of those touches of lamé fabrics, often golden and glittery, that Anderson had incorporated into many looks in previous shows, alongside the more unexpected colour combinations and various cardigans and blazers adorned with long fringe. The true pièce de résistance of the collection, however, were those oversized checked blazers, sheer and feather-light to the point of resembling shawls.

The foundation of the look is almost always a shirt tucked into trousers, with jackets that are at times Regency-inspired, at times more evening-oriented, finished with a tie or something serving that purpose. Sometimes the formal jackets become canvas bombers, sometimes they become long dressing gowns, sometimes they are worn bare-chested. The trousers have a generally slim cut when full-length, but become very wide when cropped.

The shoes, meanwhile, have been reined in: gone are the Nike Considered-style sneakers and the Loewe-esque ankle boots from the last menswear show, replaced by a range of footwear that is lower, more summery, more restrained. The looks have benefited from this absence of visual distractions, in favour of greater harmony. The bag offering was also strong.

As the look of this Dior Homme comes into ever sharper focus, however, a couple of observations are worth making. The first is that, even though the SS27 offering is far more realistic and grounded than what we have seen before, there remains a certain difficulty in imagining many of these looks outside a red carpet or an editorial. The question is not so much who the man is who might wear them, but rather on what occasion they would be worn.

The second concerns seasonality: wool houndstooth coats, blazers with fur-trimmed lapels, and long scarves coexist with weightless tailoring and surfer-style denim shorts, creating the impression of looks that exist for an impossible climate. But there is little point in placing too many constraints on the runway's imagination - what matters is that Anderson is making progress, and he is indeed doing so. In giant strides.