“Great designers often have a sense of importance that’s too strong—they understand the idea of a garment without understanding the person who will wear it, and they conceive of luxury as strangely separated from the ground. What I love about Jonathan Anderson is that he is grounded, and he has an innate understanding of how fashion and human behaviour intertwine. Jonathan is one of the most intelligent, empathetic, and curious people I know, but he also has a wonderful sense of humour, and a capacity not to take himself too seriously.”

Luca Guadagnino—the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and director of Challengers— in his dedication to Anderson among TIME’s People of the Year 2024.

Like the tidal island of Mont-Saint-Michel itself, what’s in and what’s out of fashion is forever ebbing and flowing as the moments of impeccable tide come and go,but sometimes a wave so glorious crashes onto the coast that we forget all the pre and après waves as its timelessness of elegance enraptures us: meet Jonathan Anderson’s Dior bridal. Such a wave of poise and flight for the fairytale wedding of Ming Zi and Mario Ho that won’t be easy to forget. Undoubtedly, the task of crafting a dress which could match the scope of such a wedding was no simple task for Anderson as the couple would be the first to be married on the Unesco Heritage Site in Mont-Saint-Michel abbey in the Normandy region of France in over a thousand of years with majestical furniture and florals abounding everywhere. However, the Northern Irish designer, creator of JW Anderson and recently appointed creative director of Christian Dior Men, certainly did not disappoint as Jonathan Anderson weaved together some of his trademark motifs with a reserved refinement that communicated the power of the bride as it deeply understood the subject of the garment and the mystical location of her wedding.

Jonathan Anderson has been no stranger to industry and pop culture success, from being the first to win Menswear and Womenswear Designer of the Year simultaneously in 2015 and being named Fashion Designer of the Year by GQ in 2023 to designing viral looks for Harry Style or Rhianna on the biggest stages of the world. Growing up during The Troubles, Anderson flipped between Northern Ireland and the Islands of Ibiza and has described this contrasting in-betweenness as inspiration for his sensibilities as a designer. Perhaps the focus of wings and flight in Ming Xi’s gown and the contrasts of brilliant gems and unadorned fabric stem from this inspiration but this we can only theorise about; without further ado, let’s get to the wedding dress (one of out of three Haute Couture dresses from the events!).

As quoted by Vogue, model Ming Xi was always interested in a custom work from Anderson as she says: “I absolutely love Jonathan Anderson’s new look for Dior…The designs feel so vibrant and lively, with a youthful, girlish spirit that’s also effortlessly lazy and carefree.” The dress is an open back gown made from “wild silk charmeuse, which has a natural pearl like lustre” as Dior’s delicate iconic buttons pattern the cuffs and back. Speaking of iconic, Anderson’s signature bow brought his fluency of intimacy to the dress. Furthermore, piano wire was inserted into the open back to create a wing-like shape which held in structured, unstoppered beauty. Finally, Ming paired the look with a round diamond Graff necklace composed of 52 carats of diamonds and studs and bespoke Dior high heels with a butterfly bow, embossed with their very own wedding date. When summarizing the look, Best Magazine felt that “bridal, when it is done well, is always a proposal about culture. It tells you what a house thinks a woman should be on the day she is most watched. This first look at Jonathan Anderson Dior bridal suggests a woman who does not disappear into the dress. She wears it the way you wear good tailoring, with intent, with ease, with a faint refusal to perform” and it is impossible not to agree.