Jonathan Anderson delivers one of the sweetest, loveliest, most poetic, tranquil, untroubled, innocent, painterly ad campaign reveries I’ve had the privilege to view in years. All in all, Dior wears a stiff upper lip facing the Winter 2026 Campaign with sweet damsels Dru Campbell, Laura Kaiser, Sunday Rose and Zhao Ziqi drifting like angels into the ethereal safe space of young women with trust funds.

They are so richly blessed, drifting off somewhere on the road to nowhere. Not to knock on the doors of their collective consciousness, but perhaps they are suffering from ennui, a deep, weary boredom and listlessness, a grey feeling where life’s routines feel dull and meaningless — even when they occur in a luxury brand with a premier pedigree.

David Sims [IG] a British creative institution in his own right, is being honored this autumn in a major exhibition ‘The Hamster Becomes The Problem’, sponsored by The MOP Foundation. Dates are Nov. 21, 2026 - Jan. 5, 2027. Sims seems not to be suffering from ennui.

He is the photographer/director of this exquisite plate of Dior product bonbons or macarons from Maison Ladurée. You can savour them at Café Dior by Ladurée in Tokyo. Sims captures the purity of these sweet young women who are — well scrumptious. Delicious, delectable, luscious, tasty, yummy.

Benjamin Bruno styles the Dior Winter 2026 Campaign with hair by Guido Payau and makeup by Yadim.

These clothes are well — season less. Or as Jonathan explained it’s “transversal of seasons”. Given the scorching heat in France, he may be right. Fall could be nothing more than an apparition. We are in flow mode . . . except for a few nasty details . . .

Chanel v Dior: The New Conspiracy Theory

I literally gasped last night when reading an assertion that there’s a conspiracy against Dior and Chanel is lying about their 16% increase in 2026 revenue, in order to embarrass Dior and Jonathan Anderson.

Now that is Trump country nonsense!!!! From all we know, everything we read about Chanel’s success is true.

. . . And a Zero Sum Game

90% of the financial markets now believe that Dior and Chanel are locked in a zero-sum luxury battle and Dior has suffered a strong gut punch. Financial modeling demonstrates that the stock is now trading significantly below its intrinsic fair value. This indicates that the institutional investment community is actively baking a steep "management and creative risk premium" into Dior's valuation, explicitly losing faith in the brand's near-term trajectory.

I know that Jonathan and Delphine deny this reality but Morgan Stanley is not known for making critical mistakes in this kind of analysis. They use different systems than AOC, but we both come to the same conclusion. Morgan Stanley believes that the Dior situation is worsening under Anderson. Fine, maybe his trinkets are moving, but the VICs are leaving, according to my sources.

Dior in China Takes Massive Fall on Bank of America Luxury Brand Momentum Tracker

CNA Luxury reports Dior is stagnant in China, but Chanel has the same queues as seen in other major global cities. Retail tracking data cited within the report shows that the massive physical queues outside global flagships belong entirely to Chanel. Anderson’s intellectualized "reading room" displays are generating industry press, but failing to convert into transactional foot traffic.

Most of those books are an absolute affront to Chinese intelligence. American women’s also.

Bank of America's luxury brand momentum trackers in China showed Chanel climbing from 10th place in April to 1st place overall in June. Concurrently, Dior fell to 31st place in the same tracker. Yes, 31st place, heavily dragged down by deteriorating digital engagement and weakening search activity among Chinese luxury buyers.

The Global Alienation of Women

AOC is read by the financial analysts and a new term has been developed to describe the Dior crisis: The Global Alienation of Women. It’s not my term, but it’s a real deal and it is my argument. We are very pissed off over Dior.

Maybe that will change with time. Few problems are forever. This Dior situation is the biggest mistake I’ve watched in my career. Victoria’s Secret was the biggest until now, and there I really had a front row seat; and I left in order to avoid being part of the debacle. Much like former CEO of Miu Miu Benedetta Petruzzo, who left Dior over a values disagreement that clearly is part of this story.

BTW, Victoria’s Secret is on the road to recovery finally, but the years-long agony that business went through never had to happen.

A Beautiful Campaign Escape but Dior Faces Huge Challenges

So the fall ad campaign is oh so lovely. And these lovely young damsels — not working girls, although maybe at Sotheby’s — really do look lovely. And the Sims photography is exquisite. And so are the macarons from Maison Ladurée.

Is this a break the slump campaign? Up against the Chanel bullet train coming their way? To be fair, no ad campaign can solve the Dior challenges.

Smarter people than Anne will come up with an answer. If I was Anderson, I’d be sweating bullets. And Delphine is inspiring zero confidence in her ability to lead Dior out of this ditch, which actually helps Anderson. Her devotion to him is becoming her greatest liability, with fears that she is not facing the severity of her challenges. Favorite child or not, I haven’t heard one private vote of confidence about Delphine Arnault’s leadership. Actually not in public either.