Speculation can finally come to an end. Before she said “I do” to Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift said “I do” to a dress — from Dior.
A statement provided by a representative for Swift confirmed that the designer of her wedding gown is Jonathan Anderson, the newish creative director of the French house, who, since he joined last year, has been charged with revitalizing its global profile. Making what may be the single most high-profile dress of the year — likely to inspire innumerable copycats — is one way to do it. No photos of the dress have been released.
It’s a coup for Anderson, especially following Dua Lipa’s choice of Dior rival Chanel for her recent wedding. It’s a win for Delphine Arnault, the chief executive of Dior, who fought to bring Anderson to the brand. And it’s confirmation that Swift, whose taste tends to the fairy tale rather than the avant-garde, eccentric or understated, and has never seemingly bought into the snobbism of the high fashion world, was thinking about posterity as much as princesses when it comes to this particular event.
Getting the hot new designer at one of the most storied couture houses in Paris to design your dress, like situating your wedding in a giant arena smack in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world, on one of the busiest weekends, is a flex.
Pointedly, this is the first time Swift has worn an Anderson-for-Dior design, though she wore a tartan corset and train look by his predecessor, Maria Grazia Chiuri, to the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards and since April has been carrying an assortment of Dior bags.
Some had guessed that Ralph Lauren might be the designer of choice, in part because of his credentials as the ur-American designer, and in part because the wedding took place on the July 4 weekend, and both Swift and Kelce had worn Lauren for their engagement photo shoot.
Others bet on Schiaparelli, because Swift had worn a white dress by the designer to the Grammys in 2024 — though that, along with the fact that both Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Dua Lipa had worn Schiaparelli to their weddings, seemed to mitigate against it. Vivienne Westwood was also a contender, because, again, the Grammys, and because Swift clearly loves the romance and historicism of a corset and a swagged skirt, and no brand does it better.
Interestingly, even Vogue, in its speculation about who might make the dress, had not mentioned Dior, though The Hollywood Reporter publicly floated the brand as a possibility earlier this week. At the time, Dior, not surprisingly, declined to comment.
The statement from Swift’s representative described the gown as Anderson’s “first couture wedding dress for a world-renowned celebrity.” But Anderson has designed wedding dresses for private clients before. In June, the model Ming Xi wore a long-sleeved boatnecked Dior couture gown with a back that opened like the wings of a bird for her marriage to the entrepreneur Mario Ho, while later that month the Brazilian influencer Elisa Zarzur followed suit in an elaborate embroidered lace Dior couture bodysuit with another open and winged back under a grand satin skirt for her nuptials.
Anderson had also ended his first couture show, held in January, with a wedding dress: a one-shouldered look, covered in hundreds of translucent petals, like a cross between Titania and a snow angel. Perhaps it was something of an audition.
If so, it worked.
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