Discovering Dior Fall Winter 2026-2027 Haute Couture with Alexa Chung

Hello, I'm Alexa Chung. We're in Paris, and you're in for a treat. Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Wow, look at this lace. Wow. Wow. This is Dior Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2026-27. Let's go, baby. We're going to be discovering all the incredible, intricate techniques that went into making this phenomenal collection. We're so lucky we're even trying on couture gowns. I'm talking to the seamstresses. I'm talking to everyone in the atelier. A maquette. Did you like my pretending to speak French? I'm talking to Mr. Jonathan Anderson himself. I have the best team in the world. I'm just the showgirl at the front. And the inspirations, we're going to map all of them for you so you can sound like the best party guest ever. So follow me, Alexa Chung, as we go into the belly of the beast. OK, great. Bisous. See you later. Hi. I'm here at 30 Montagne. This address is really important because this is where all the original ateliers were and this is where they still happen today. I have a question for you, and that's if you've ever wondered what haute couture is all about, I'm going to answer all your questions because we're going to meet all of the people who actually make it happen. So we're going to take a look inside. Follow me. Bonjour. Can you tell me where we are? Of course, of course. We are in the historical building, the Atelier Particulier of Monsieur Dior, where everything started in 1946. So we can feel a bit of the spirit of Monsieur Dior here. Amazing. So we do the fittings here as, you know, Monsieur Dior used to do in the past. OK, so today, can I pretend to be a couture client? It is such a pleasure. Oh. Wow. So this was Jonathan's first Dior couture wedding gown? Exactly. They spent like more than 800 hours just for the atelier, and after you can see all the beautiful embroidery that we have by the Atelier Cécile Henry. If I'm getting a wedding dress made, will you be with me on my big day? Of course. We come always with the seamstress, with the first of atelier, and yeah. We have your hands, you know, before you walk to the aisle. It's a big support for sure. Wow. It looks like feathers, but it's organza. What are the limitations around couture? Can I say, I love it, but I want it in blue? It really depends on the approval of the studio, but technically, I mean, if it's possible. Are people asking for new things as well to go with it? Like they'll say, I love this dress, but I need something to cover my arms? Yeah, special creations is really part of the process of the haute couture. So we can create like the top, we can cover the arms, or change the length, or yeah, everything. If I have a party to go to in one month, it's possible to turn it around or no? It needs to be, what's the lead time on a couture garment? Everything takes time, you know, because it's all handmade. So let's say that for a piece like that, especially when it's full embroidered, it tooks like at least six to eight months. And for regular clients, do you have a kind of form of their measurements that you keep? Always. This is the starting point of a haute couture project, is having your measurements and creating your own mannequin. Oh. This dress is amazing. It's incredible. Oh my God. They use the straight piano to create this structure, to make it light and, you know, flexible. Then you can sit. Oh, it's brilliant. How many fittings would I enjoy if I was getting a couture gown? At least we say two or three fittings. This is catching my eye. This is, I love. The jacquard fabric I loved anyway, like the blue as well. I'm really just so jazzed on that skirt. Do you want to try the look? Of course. Get out of here. I love it. Of course. Wow. Oh. You look divine. So you see, you don't need any fittings. Oh my God, great. I can make it really easy for you. And we have also all the embroidery of velvet. It's just incredible. And this amazing georgette that is fully embroidered, you know, on the jacquard. Thousands of hours of work. Yeah, it feels good. There's no going back. Imagine how happy you'd be just looking at that every day. Okay, I'm going to get changed. Sadly. Yeah. Goodbye, dear friend. I knew you well. Au revoir. Welcome to the Dior gallery. So we're starting this visit with a small installation. Just a little installation. Just a little thing, you know. Oh, it's beautiful. So it's a visual history of the house through 1,874 different objects. And it includes 452 miniature dresses. Yeah. Who makes the miniature dresses? The workshops. They're making it in-house? In-house for us. I love that one down there. It's the Princess Diana dress. Is it? That's the one. Oh, my God, but it wasn't white. No, it wasn't white. It was a navy blue. And there's really this idea of mixing up, you know, accessories and dresses because Monsieur Dior said, my dream is to dress a Christian, the woman from head to toe. The fashion shows were held in the house at that time. Just to give you a sense of what it was, it started in this very small building. It was a little bit like a dollhouse, as you can see. Very small boutique here. Then right away in 1948, Monsieur Dior built an eight-story building with only workshops. He has to extend the capacity of production because of the success of his first collection. And they were making it all there? Exactly, exactly. From the workshop to the salon, the studio. Where are we on this? So we just entered this way, but we're going to take a path that goes to this part. Mmm, fun. So obviously we're starting with the most iconic piece of the Bar suit, 1947. It's beautiful. It's an afternoon suit. Monsieur Dior, indeed, for each... Are you trying to steal it? No. He really embodied this first idea of Monsieur Dior for his first collection of spring-summer 1947 to bring back femininity through fashion. So, soft shoulders, very tight at the waist. He's using also what we call the basque, which are, you know, the little pockets on the side, which makes it even... Accentuating that here. It's, of course, a renewal after the years of the war, but it will bring back the Paris couture into the spotlight. From one day to another, he became super famous with this collection and with this silhouette in particular. We have this Jonathan Anderson outfit, which is really referencing the Bar suit, but what is interesting here is that the bow, the central bow is a trompe-l'oeil, so it doesn't close the jacket. It adorns the jacket, which is slightly different. It's very, very beautiful. The family house. Oh, my God, I love. So, it's only Christian Dior pieces. This is amazing. So, this one is actually from the first collection. It's 1947. That one? Yeah, it's called Amour. It's called Love. This is great. This is so modern. It's magical in here. We're entering a sort of enchanted garden, creating a dialogue between the different couturiers from Christian Dior to Jonathan Anderson today. That's one of Jonathan Anderson's creations. It looks like the petal, you know? Exactly. And what is interesting, if you look carefully, you have some of these in white and the others in orange and red. It floats onto the garment. This design by Jonathan, it's a tribute to the Miss Dior dress, which Monsieur Dior designed in 1949. So, it's little, little petals of cyclamen that are composing the dress. It's beautiful. And so, here, that's fall-winter 1948 with a very amazing coat called Arizona. The idea was to have a very voluminous back, a very beautiful, you know, collar bow around the neck. I love the hat. The hat's not getting enough airtime. It's really good. What you might have not seen... Are we allowed in? No. ...is a very particular space, which has been kept as it was during Christian Dior's time. No. Guys, this is my dream. What the hell? There was the changing room, the cabin, the main castle, basically the backstage of the show. So, that was here. This is the original space, original decor, original furniture. And it smells nice. It smells like the old times in a great way. It's so heaven. Bonjour, Dior. Jonathan. No, I think it's going to be fine. We're going to be ready in time. I know, babe, just stop calling. It's getting a bit much. Okay, great, bisous. See you later. Babe. Wow. I just can't believe my eyes, guys. This is so happy-making. You don't understand. Of course, here it was packed with the studio, Monsieur Dior, the head of the workshops. And Monsieur Dior, when he talks about it, he says, like, I'm hiding behind the gray curtains, and I'm looking at my dresses becoming alive. Because it's, at the moment, they are worn for the first time that they, you know, they're born. Being birthed. Yeah. It's like a magic trick. I love a fashion surprise. So the show is tomorrow. We're in the final stretch. We're going to the fitting area. I can already see lots of people there, lots of lights. They're working to a timeline, but they're doing the most creative act you can possibly do, so it's the most beautiful expression of art for the house, but in a very short space of time. We're going to be quiet. We're going to be casual observers. Let's go. I'm scared. If you want to work in fashion, this is basically the inner sanctum. This is the ultimate goal. This is like the creme de la creme de la creme. They've recreated the runway floor over here to check exactly how it's going to look, because there's nothing up to chance. It's good to see you. What have you made? Top secret. Top hat. Top secret. This is Stephen. He's basically the best milliner in the whole wide world, and he creates all of the headpieces and beautiful millinery that goes along with the shows. In particular, couture is obviously the place where he gets to create the most incredible stuff. And he did my headpiece for the Met Gala. Can you just explain what haute couture is in this day and age? Haute couture is the preservation of the artistry of dressmaking to the absolute highest standard. It is a dying art that Jonathan is preserving, obviously, at the House of Dior. The collection was inspired by Linda Bengalis, which was a big challenge, obviously, to then translate that into clothing. This one was a real challenge to kind of get where Jonathan wanted to go with the representation of her work, but also the Dior beauty. This was really impressing me. This is gorgeous. This is knitwear. It's crazy. Yeah, with silver foil on it. We have eucalyptus and cactus, which were all inspired by her garden in Santa Fe. Oh, brilliant. This is based on her fan work. All these tiny little handmade gris-gris. You can. Oh, my God. So, wait. Each one, you have to unpick the end? Yes. Somebody in the atelier hand-placed each strip. I love that it's giving you the impression of tweed or something more robust, and you get up close and it's like... Yeah. It's amazing, isn't it? Feathery. And what's your favourite thing in this collection, do you think? I think the metal dresses. It took us trial and trial and trial to actually get the form and the shape and the lightness, but also that it looked like a dress. And it's amazing because it's really light. That's incredible. So, that was quite a challenge to defy gravity, obviously. I'm sure, yeah. And not kind of put too much stuff in. You can see it's really light. Does it suit me? Doesn't it? Nice to see you. How's it going? It's very good. When you're working with Jonathan, obviously you're capable of making dreams come true, but is there anything you say no to? He doesn't know the word no. Oh, good. You're in the right business. And that's hand-painted? Yeah. Do you think you can fit an iPhone in here? That's my favourite thing. Can you see it? It's a little porcelain tulle. This is very recognisably Jonathan to me, you know? This is a toile. So, the purpose of the toile is to make sure that everything's completely correct because once they go in and start embroidering, that's going to take hundreds of hours. So, it's really imperative that everyone's quite literally on the same page. This is paper, so that's a gag. So, this is to make sure that it's totally precise. Really, it's like architecture. The mathematics of fashion. Can I ask you something about this? You worked on this? So, basically, the toile that we saw over there is now made real here. How many days did it take you to do this? Six months. Really? Not finished? Thank you so much. Cheers. OK, so this is the atelier. I can already see them. It's very exciting. Everyone's wearing those lab coats. This is super privileged access. It's only a few hours before the show. They're still sewing things, and we're going to go and disrupt them. Bonjour, ça va? Bonjour. How's it going? Good. Bienvenue dans l'atelier. Thank you. Hi again. Hello. All of them are my friends. Oh, that's nice. So, you got your notes? Yes. Jonathan has seen the jacket. We made some little alterations. It will be a long time of work. It's very peaceful. I quite like it. Is this light mimicking daylight or something? It's giving Kubrick. It's making everything look like a sort of Kubrick movie. I think it's so that the garments just stand out of the table because the table is very white, and the light is very strong. Is this how you imagined this job would be? Yeah, with all the stress at the end it had to be quick, but yeah. It looks very romantic from this perspective. You've seen just 10 minutes of it. I've only seen 10. What a 10, what a 10. How are you feeling? Well, quite overwhelmed with a lot of modifications and everything. What's the thing that's demanding the most amount of time, like all hands on deck? This. We do everything by hand. We don't have a machine to do that, for example. Oh, wow. We add one layer there, and then we have to fringe it also. Oh my God, it's beautiful. Do you have a hand masseuse that comes in and is giving you massages? Yeah. Do you? Yeah. I can't believe it's real. Yeah, of course, because it's so tricky. And we stay late, so we finish with the shoulder and the neck. Oh my goodness. So there's a lot of sugary snacks. We have a croissant and pain au chocolat. The croissant station is exciting. Am I allowed to talk to you while you're working? Yeah, of course. Has it already been to a fitting? It needs to be finished as soon as possible. ASAP was the directive. Okay. It's just that the embroidery takes quite some time. Yeah. I'm so jealous of your coat that you get to wear. It's so cool. You want to have one? Yes. Wait, let me grab one. Wait, I have to have one. Oh my God, I'm so excited. So actually we are embroidering the guipure. Thank you. On the vests. Oh my God, I love it. It's incredible. Bonjour. Bonjour, how are you? Bien, très bien, merci. So you're the premier letelier? Yes. How someone can become you? And then it goes? Was it your dream to have this position? It's incredible. Thank you so much. So fun. This is where I have to return the jacket until I can learn how to be a premier letelier by doing thousands of years. Goodbye. I don't know about you, but I want to see another Dior letelier. So we're going to go to one now. Behind this door. Oh my God, it's so cool. How's it going? Surprise. It looks like fishnet, but I guess because it's based on Linda Benglis' work. I know she had a lot of chicken wire in some of her formations and that Jonathan was really interested in this type of sculpture. So I think they're trying to translate that type of notion and articulate it in something you can wear. So I don't know what part of the body this is going on, but he's going to tell me. So this is the raise for a special skirt. I am stitching all of those points. Oh my goodness. Yeah. That's meticulous. Yeah, absolutely. Invisible thread. Absolutely. Wow. You want to see the rest? Yes, please. Okay. Oh, it's just brilliant. Oh my goodness. It's really… This is the pattern. Now you can see all of the work. Oh my. It's gorgeous. It looks like a map. All of the color means something. What does turquoise mean? The small defects. Small defects. Yeah. This kind of… The crinkle. The defects, yeah. They're so completely new. I've never seen anything like it. That's so fun. It's like the new couture, new haute couture. It's so rebellious. Absolutely. You know? That's the word. It's exciting when you can see the flat things. Yeah. Translated, no. It's crazy. And suddenly it becomes life. So it's all of the time problems. But yeah, we have solved it. It's magic, in fact. Yeah, it's magic. Yeah, that's just the word for me. Magic. Fashion is magic. Thank you so much. My pleasure. To have something that's so planned to every millimeter, but it looks so free, I think is the genius, you know? This is the invite. It comes in this gorgeous box, which has got the texture. Madame Alexa Chung. I'm your number one fan. Haute couture, Dior, Paris, 2026. Let's go, baby. We're here ahead of time, so we're going to go backstage, see if they finish in time, what time they went to bed. I'm excited to catch up with all my friends I met yesterday and annoy them again. Behind me, this is Musée Rodin. And I love that that's in juxtapose with ultra-modernity. It's no mistake. That's Jonathan. A few hours away from the show, but it's getting towards the finishing line. So they're just checking the train and how it moves around. Nearly every element is rehearsed. Everything matters. And nothing's left up to chance. You see this fern here? That's the same thing that's reflected in the train on the wedding dress. Behind me, Jonathan is checking all of the plasmon of where everyone's sitting to make sure that he's happy with where his guests are. And what if you seat together ex-lovers and the new wife's angry and the mistress is there? Nightmare. Morning. Are these for the wedding dress? Yes. Ah, it's here. Yeah. Are you happy with how it's moving around the space? Yeah. Do you still have things to do? Yeah. It's actually considered good luck to be working on the couture wedding dress. So everyone here is about to fall in love. I want to take you over to this lady who's the second atelier. And she's been here for 43 years. And it's her last collection. How are you feeling? Which is the very last thing you worked on? Oh, no. I mean, it's amazing. We'll be cheering on your dress. Yeah. It feels very buoyant. There's a lot of energy. Are you the bride? Yes. Yes! She's the bride. How are you feeling in the dress in the rehearsal? I feel very blessed. Everyone's telling me how beautiful the dress is because obviously it is. Yes. How are you going to feel or remain composed and all of the things? Shoulders back. That's what they keep telling me. So I need to remember that. And then second of all, just being a body. Ta-da! It's good, isn't it? So follow me, Alexa Chung, as we go into the belly of the beast with Haute Couture. Alexa, Alexa. This way, Alexa. Okay. So the crowd gathered here today, it's a real mixture of people, but it's primarily the clients, of course. There are some A-list here. So we have stars from all over the world. How are you? I'm good, and you? What makes couture so special? I mean, the couture is like sort of the ultimate form of expression, isn't it? Where the best embroidery, you experiment with the best colors, shapes. But I feel like it all starts here where you can really realize all the great ideas. I think this one, the artist is Linda Begalis, who's a little bit more Santa Fe, desert. I believe you're going to see a lot of cactuses. Uh-huh. Strictly prickly. Oh, nice. There you go. Maybe we're near each other? I'm next to you. Sick. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Phenomenal. I'm next to my faves, Derek Blasberg and Lauren Santa Dominguez. That's good. It's like hanging out with friends, but in a really, like, upscale environment. What is it about couture that makes it so different from ready-to-wear? I think it's the workmanship. It's so extraordinary. When you think of all of these incredible people who do endlessly, for hours, every detail, every... It's so beautiful, and it's so important. It's something that should never be lost. I'm always in awe, really. It's a superposition of tulle, of different colors. Blue, grey. Beige. Sometimes they do the scarves, the Indian scarves, where it has the section like this. Yeah, it's the same technique. It's absolutely beautiful. The Arizona coat. Yeah. What can you tell us about that? Well, it's one of my favorite coats in history by Dior. In the office, in the corridors, there's a picture of it, so I feel like subliminal messaging was telling me to do it. And we just took the original pattern and we hand pleated it. The silhouettes were stunning. Yeah. The fabrics were heaven. And everything I looked at, I was like, I don't know if I want to wear that out and just sleep in it. I know. There's a junction between the linen and the muslin, and there's a bit of a scratchy side between the linen and the muslin. There are a few sequins to give a bit of relief. It's put inside the coat like that, and so it's going to project. The coat has a different shape right away. This is a wedding dress, you know. Oh, la la. What is this paper? Acid-free paper. Okay, and that's how one should preserve one's couture wedding dress. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is an amazing wedding dress from 1955 that's in the archive, laid to rest here. And it actually came from someone who worked in the sales for Haute Couture. She has been inspired by this one. Spring, summer, 1955. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's totally beautiful. It's got the bow, which is a bit more frivolous and fun. There's a jacket that sits over it. There's two different parts here. This is my style. Maybe I take this off and wear it just like that, with these gloves. Concerning the wedding dresses, they were always shown at the end of the show. Yes. We say that it was a synthesis of what has been decided by Mr. Dior for the line, you know, for the collection. For example, also the model who wore the wedding dress, she wore only the wedding dress. Oh, cool. She was the wedding dress girl. Yeah. So the biggest honour as a model in the entire show is to be the wedding dress? Absolutely, yeah. If I was modelling a couture show, I'd really want to be the wedding dress girl. Hi. Congratulations. Thank you. You were elegant, you were powerful. Thank you. You were beautiful. Thank you. Did you like the whole thing? I loved the whole thing, yeah. Okay, amazing. It was just like a parade of extraordinary ideas, but also felt so cohesive. I have to say, because I could see everyone walking out and it was the most beautiful thing ever. These people are my heroes. Thanks to them. Congratulations. You were brilliant. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thanks to everyone here. Which one are you getting? Well, I would just get married again. Yes. To either Tom again or someone else and wear the bridal dress. And then, or bury Tom and wear the black lace dress. Perfect. So do both. Or just get married in a black dress. I could do that. Yeah. I've been to work with your incredible atelier. The best. I have the best team in the world. Each look is by each individual person, so it's really them. I'm just the showgirl at the front. That's good. What time did you get to bed? Last night, 2 a.m. Lovely. This morning, 6 a.m. I have no idea what I'm saying anymore. And it was really moving to see things that we'd seen being worked on in the atelier kind of sweep past me. Like, in particular, the black coat with the fern lacing. It was amazing. I felt really proud of them. I was like, you finished it. It was really cool. Yeah, I felt very lucky. So it's the day after the show, and here at this amazing ephemeral structure, they've invited all of Paris, basically. You can come and visit this space, and you can see Jonathan's collection alongside Christian Dior's incredible original designs, and then, of course, in dialogue with Linda Benglis' artwork. And they also invite school kids to come and look at it, which I think is so lovely. They can sketch it and learn all about it. This is what we saw in the atelier, if you remember. These brilliant skirts being made with the chicken mesh and that incredible glitter patches. Right next to it, we have the actual Linda Benglis artwork. It's so lovely to see how it's been interpreted by Jonathan. Why was it important for you to collaborate or work with Linda on this? I've been obsessed with her for 25 years. She changes how we look and form and, I don't know, I adore her. I like her sensibility. I'm actually here as well to meet a friend of mine who I've met before. He's called Armin Jaffer, and he's an expert on the cultural exchange between European and Asian art, and he also knows a lot about Linda Benglis. One of the things that's important in this whole project is India. Linda Benglis spent a lot of time in a city called Ahmedabad. So Ahmedabad is the heart of textile production in India, one of them, and there's a family there called the Sarabhai family that has created a great museum of Indian textiles, and Linda, of course, has been inspired by that collection. This has a very Indian feeling, because the saree is normally draped in the reverse way, but it's normally pleated and draped over the shoulder. India is really the cradle of textile civilization. It's really there where we see the first printed cottons, for example. So these fabrics here are... Delicious. They're brightly printed and painted cottons, chintz. It's a term anyone who's grown up in the UK will know. It refers to these very riotous, bold cotton fabrics used a lot in decoration in the UK. But the origin is Indian. Are they used on bags? Yeah, absolutely. Before the Indians developed it, there was no way to have a pattern on a cotton fabric. Really? Absolutely, really. And what does it do? It revolutionizes fashion. I love hearing about this. So with Linda Benglis, the whole point is that she uses really improbable materials. She was the first one to use, in sculpture, latex, polyurethane, all types of plastics. But when she emerges as an artist, it's completely fresh language. Nobody's done it before. We have here a trio of design, which is fantastic. Of course, the original Dior, in which you see the pleats in a very, very elegant way. But look at the sculpture here by Linda Benglis from 1985. She's really stretching the boundaries of materiality into complex form. And of course, what we see in the latest creation at Dior is that Jonathan Anderson, inspired by the elegance of Mr. Dior's pleating, inspired by the movement of Linda Benglis's work, produces something that's wholly original. This is my favorite one. That's the one I would order. It's fantastic. And I like that the tones are mismatched as well. There's a navy blue and black version, and I just love things that are, like, one shade apart. I'm obsessed with it, and I love its form, but the glitter and the sequins being chucked on it, it's something... She was really bringing in textile tradition, hand-making, craftsmanship, into works of sculpture. Glitter and sparkles really form the backbone of some of Linda's best-known works. This has so many references. It's fantastic because you have the feeling of ocean, you have the feeling of nature with the leaves, and then look at the draping. If you go back to ancient Indian sculpture, you see exactly this type of drape across the body. We're going to end this by walking over to my favorite art piece. I just want to say goodbye to you. Thank you so much for watching this. Remember to subscribe to the Dior YouTube channel. They have a lot of other great videos for you to see. What a pleasure and an honor to take you through this journey. I've learned a lot. I'm going to go and stare at some artwork now. I love you. I've been Alexa Chung. Bye-bye.