Dior Brand Reality Check

It’s a new day at Anne of Carversville. Some clarification may be required as AOC asks serious, legitimate questions about “the Dior situation.”

When Jonathan Anderson became creative director of Dior, AOC was a lead voice in the universe of Chiuri lovers, advising everyone to stay calm. Anderson was a good guy and he would never stab us in the back. This is what happens when a loving spirit is broadsided by a Lilith reference.

Big mistake on Anne’s part.

Do not ask Anne how Dior CEO Delphine Arnault lost her mind to her beloved, luxury-brand genius Sun King. She’s never seen a PR offensive like the one for Jonathan Anderson’s Dior arrival. Reality is, that compared to Chanel, Dior is increasingly falling behind.

Blazy/Nair Chanel v Anderson/Arnault Dior

Chanel Rocks: This morning we can say that Matthieu Blazy and Leena Nair at Chanel have managed to make Coco Chanel a complex woman who lost the love of her life and carried on. Unlike Dior, they are embracing Chiuri women with love and joy and not demanding that we genuflect to Anderson as our Sun King.

And if that’s not enough, Blazy’s insightful pursuit of of Coco Chanel’s deep and tragic-ending love affair with Boy Capel — which Anne also only learned about two years ago — not only put Charvet men’s shirts on the Chanel runway for women and men.

Today we learn that following this runway collaboration with Matthieu Blazy, Chanel has bought France’s oldest shirtmaker Charvet, as longtime owner-operators Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude Colban seek a succession plan.

‘Charvet is a beautiful jewel. Now there’s work to be done to set it up for its next steps,’ said Chanel fashion president Bruno Pavlovsky.

Jonathan Anderson as Co-CEO of Dior

Dior Sleepwalks: Dior is an entirely different story, a real business mind-meld about what increasingly feels like an out-of-control situation with high potential for genuine disaster.

What is clear is that when Lauren Sherman at Puck.News wrote that Jonathan Anderson is more of a co-CEO at Dior, than a creative director, AOC’s response was “And what dual-CEO achievements have this new Dior couple booked as big accomplishments? Perhaps he should become a great creative director before he assumes new responsibilities. So what has Dior done in the last year?

Zero. A big, fat ZERO in AOC’s playbook.

Have they done more harm than good at Dior? YES. And that is exactly their plan.

At least it’s Anderson’s plan to burn it to the ground. Every time Delphine Arnault opens her mouth, it’s to assure us that Anderson sits on the mountaintop as the greatest talent alive in luxury branding. We must trust him.

Not Anne Enke. Not Anne of Carversville. We do not bow down to the Dior Sun King. Our financial performance at Victoria’s Secret runs circles around his stumbling, mumbling, never a profit financial performance at JW Anderson. You would think he booked our 25% CAGR [compounded annual growth rate] at Victoria’s Secret for a decade. And he gets a B grade at Loewe for his estimated 13% CAGR.

There is nothing but a lot of words and hot air coming out of Dior. And they have the best PR people alive. AOC is so saturated with claims of Anderson’s luxury-world brilliance that Anne has put cotton balls in her ears. Consider it an ultimate act of rebellion.

Dior Book Totes in Freefall in China

When Jonathan Anderson toted in his first book list — the titles in his Dior Dream Library — Delphine Arnault should have said ‘no’. Seriously, must we do ‘Dracula’ at both Dior and Loewe?

How about a paltry 25% women writers? When women constitute 80% of the revenue? Could Anderson maybe find a few more women writers who meet his standards? This is embarrassing for us Chiuri women.

Or like so many Eurocentric white men, perhaps Anderson honestly believes that women are real laggards in the creative community? In Anderson’s mind, my comments are PROOF beyond a reasonable doubt that he is succeeding in blowing up Dior. My critique is great news in the Jonathan Anderson playbook.

The 25 Key Reasons Why Benedetta Petruzzo Left Dior

AOC imagines year-long Managing Director of Christian Dior Couture Benedetta Petruzzo, who quietly ‘walked’ from the brand in January 2026, asking Delphine if she was out of her damn mind with those new Jonathan Anderson book totes. That’s only one of many tough questions she probably asked about the New Dior.

Meanwhile, the universe sent its own message about Anderson’s book totes in China. Enter stage left: Trader Joe’s canvas bags, the new darling of the Ubuntu 4 All crowd in Asia. Everyday Americans send big love to China’s people.

As the former CEO of Miu Miu, Petruzzo is credited with writing the book on successful luxury brand building in China for Western brands. I cannot imagine what was going through her mind, as she examined Anderson’s book list that is almost exclusively centered on preserving the dominance of Eurocentric white men.

None of Anderson’s books are banned in China. In fact, China’s Ministry of Culture has encouraged China’s elite to read Anderson’s titles to understand just how far into the garbage pit European civilization has sunk. It’s impossible the Petruzzo didn’t share that readily-available information about the Sun King’s book list.

We Can and Will Give You 25 Reasons Why Dior in China Might Have a Pandoras’s Box of Problems

Yes, we believe AOC can give you 25 Reasons why Dior is struggling in China, while Arnault and Anderson challenged Petruzzo as a know-nothing. We’re on it. All the Dior Managing Director said was that she wanted to work in a maison that better reflected her values. Presumably she had enough information to blow the place up, and Dior was happy to let her break her contract and get out of their beautiful Dior faces.

So what else are the Chinese upset about?

They have deep distrust over the way the Shanghai data breach was handled in China. Chinese VICs spending $300,000 a year on Dior got the same form letter as everyone else. Not even a phone call? Nada.

You can blame that debacle solely on Delphine Arnault’s decision-making. Anne would have seen to it that those clients received a personal phone call from her, along with the head of Dior in Shanghai. We are dumbfounded to be told by our sources that the VICs got the form letter and nothing more.

Meanwhile, Anderson got busy and dismissed one of the key reasons for Chinese women buying the Dior Book Totes: Personalization.

Kaput, said the Sun King. “I need that space for my book titles. From now on, you will promote the titles that I decide for you. Even if you are maligned in those books in demeaning ways. You must learn that Western civilization led by white men is the best civilization. What do they teach you in China!! Have you been reading that awful Anne of Carversville woman, who does not see my brilliance? I hear she is open in China. Did they bribe her? Do not believe anything she says. I am the Dior Sun King.”

To Jonathan Anderson, Empathy Is Weakness

With his public debut, Anderson promises to burn down the house of Dior as his opening act — sending a very direct and emotionally-loaded message to Dior VICs around the world.

Then he unloaded ‘The Clockwork Orange’ on us for good measure. It’s a safe bet to say that Jonathan Anderson is devoid of empathy. Worse yet, he really can’t fake it — not even to preserve relationships with VIC women across China. I imagine it to be no different in America, except in Hollywood.

We women all exist for one purpose. We are defined as props to showcase Jonathan Anderson’s alleged status of design brilliance — one that gives us no credit for knowing how we wish to express ourselves in luxury clothes, or any other uniform of dress.

We are his audience and Delphine Arnault — his alleged boss — does not correct him. AOC is known for attacking the complex emotional issues that impact brand relationships. And after one year of the Jonathan Anderson show, we’ve witnessed enough.

Houston to Delphine

Delphine Arnault either agrees with Jonathan Anderson with regard to his views on women — including Dior VICs — or she is the beta pup to her alpha dog designer.

If she’s the beta pup to Anderson, AOC says: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” When you begin digging into the whispered halls of intellectual opinion on ‘the Dior situation’, the topic of whether Delphine Arnault has any real control over Jonathan Anderson is a recurring topic.

From AOC’s perspective, Jonathan Anderson is as closely aligned with the planks of Italian Futurism as any creative can be. And that is a scary thought because one of the key planks of Italian Futurism is a deep disdain for women — like 90% of us. We will share the reams of convos Anne has on this topic.

After receiving the latest update on plummeting resale values around Anderson’s book totes in China and the rise of Trader Joe’s Anti-Luxury Must-Haves, we cannot be still any longer.

AOC Respects Deeply Chairman Bernard Arnault, But He Is in a Serious Bind Here

Out of deference and our enormous respect for Bernard Arnault, AOC has sat on volumes of concerning info about Dior in China and in America for months now. We know about all the manufacturing difficulties Dior is experiencing in Italy.

Yes, they are partially tied to the settlement with Italian authorities to clean up Dior manufacturing. LVMH also deployed Louis Vuitton industrial director Ludovic Pauchard to overhaul Dior’s production problems in Italy.

Concurrently, we are told, frequent late-stage design modifications by Jonathan Anderson severely delayed production, causing empty shelves around his debut collection. The complaints about Jonathan Anderson’s frequent habit of changing his mind to only throw a wrench in Dior production lines is cited as a recurring problem.

Sun Kings typically are not inclined to change the way they work. It undermines their status as the big man in charge.

It appears to a growing number of people that 1] Jonathan Anderson is in way over his head at Dior; and 2] Delphine Arnault has absolutely no control over him.

Meanwhile Chanel is on Fire

The Blazy-Nair machine appears to be making roadkill of Dior. And they are so nice about everything. No layers of grandeur. It might be an American observation that has no validity in France. But the horizontal, New Humanism Values of Chanel are polar opposites to the imperial designer as Sun King at Dior.

Based on the new Bain-BOF luxury report and interviews with 2000+ VICs only, the Chinese and the Americans share a strong preference for emotional branding and connection with luxury brand values.

Sorry to say so Dior, but you’ve exhibited zero empathy for the Chiuri VICs and it may be way too late to get us back. It would require a different designer and that’s not going to happen.

Under these circumstances, perhaps Mr. Pietro Beccari or even Mr. Bernard Arnault himself needs to have a chat with the Dior Sun King. AOC knows that Delphine reports to her father, not Beccari via Fashion Group. But with so much at stake here, perhaps a friendly visit with Mr. Beccari could help iron out some of these issues. Intervention can work well in situations like this one.

These topics must be raised and dealt with before irreparable harm is done to the #2 brand in the LVMH portfolio.

It’s impossible that the massive free-fall Dior book totes are experiencing in China’s resale market isn’t an ominous signal of greater brand health challenges in the months ahead. You can assume that Anne of Carversville has the data. And we will use it. No more sitting on important information and our analysis. We gave it a year. Time’s up. Sending love to all. ~ Anne and Anne of Carversville