Auteur couture, anyone?
Helmed by Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson, the house of Dior and independent film studio A24 are entering a two-year partnership revolving around artistic programming.
Centered in the historic Cherry Lane theatre in New York, the collaboration involves a series of film and theater productions as well as programs connecting artists and audiences.
The latter resonates especially with Anderson, who has long been involved in film costuming, notably with director Luca Guadagnino.
Almost in homage to that connection between artists and audiences, or better yet, between artists from different fields who are also audiences of each other, talents like Sophie Wilde, Drew Starkey, and Camille Cottin opened the collaboration with self-aware performances where they each tried to play the role of Anderson, reveling in his quirks and channeling his spark.
Also starring Sabrina Carpenter and Josh O’Connor, one can glean from the teaser that it’s a project that doesn’t take itself too seriously while also adding gravitas at the right moments. Think of it like the presence of a few bitters in an otherwise sweet cocktail making for a fuller experience.
“It’s on-screen, it’s off-screen. It’s character,” muses O’Connor, adding that “it’s not about the [Anderson’s] walk, but I suppose, ultimately,
the walk is the gesture [of his character].”
The 2-minute teaser may jump off with Anderson, but as we see Wilde increasingly bodying her understanding of Anderson’s frustration, first tearing printed photos from a wall, then later, kicking, screaming, and finally, the camera zooming out as she lies spread-eagled on the stage.
The teaser’s focus lands squarely on the push-and-pull of the creative process.
At this point, one can’t help but be intrigued at what the 2-year collaboration has in store: It seems tactile, experiential, and conceptually-charge for the lucky participants, who are reportedly art students and emerging creatives.
Sophie Wilde portrays Jonathan Anderson.
As a boy growing up in a tumultuous period in Northern Ireland, Anderson always dreamed of being an actor before discovering a love for fashion – and how it played an essential part in crafting a character.
His childhood homes shifted regularly between the Ireland of The Troubles and the idyllic Ibiza, and the constant exposure to such contrasting environments proved formative, mirroring the contrasts depicted, with both whimsy and sobriety, in many A24 productions.
Anderson once studied in Julliard, after leaving his then-war-torn home.
He eventually settled in Dublin after graduating from the London College of Fashion, working initially with houses like Prada and Versace before he unveiled his own label: JW Anderson.
Given its own history in reconstructing French aspirations after the war, and eventually, more empowered notions of femininity as we entered the 21st century, it’s little wonder then that Dior eventually embraced Anderson as its latest creative director in 2025.
More than simply costuming for shoots, Anderson through Dior now takes an active role in directing, in programming, in essence a true collaboration. Think of it as a motion picture fashion editorial, where the vocabulary of film drapes seamlessly over the body of fashion.
It’s been happening for a while, too, as other haute fashion houses, from Saint Laurent to Balenciaga to Miu Miu have begun taking on more film projects.
Given its reputation for experimental, even meta cinema, A24’s collaborative programming has no better venue than Cherry Lane Theatre, which it purchased in March 2023. The site became known for Off-Broadway experimental productions, starting with Pablo Picasso’s forays into theater, to other works by Samuel Beckett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Elliot, to name a few. The venue even hosted performances by Bob Dylan.
But what really brings the collaboration home is its focus on emerging artists as well as art students.
Just as Anderson received opportunities he once dreamed of, he now finds himself in a place where he can pay it all forward. The same could be said of A24, whose initial years were an uphill battle in a Hollywood-dominated landscape. Many of its first releases barely scraped by in the box office, and critics initially questioned if auteur-led productions were worth investing in.
But it worked with Cherry Lane, showing that everyone can connect with a sense of quirkiness, which, in retrospect, is just brilliance yet-to-be-understood.
For the emerging crop of artists fortunate to participate in the two-year program, the barriers Anderson and A24 faced have been broken, the gate wide and open for anyone brave enough to enter into their truest self.
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