Jonathan Anderson, the recently appointed creative director of Dior, is already shaking up the label by doing away with the iconic all-capital DIOR logo, which the house has used since 2018. In its place comes a historic typography, a return to the mark chosen by Christian Dior in 1946: a capital “D” followed by oblique lowercase letters, derived from the Cochin font by engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin. It may seem a small detail, but this gesture already marks the Northern Irish Anderson’s desire to infuse his work with the heritage of the Avenue Montaigne house. For now, the logo change is limited to labels and textile details, and observers have seen a slight difference already in the men’s spring-summer 2026 collection, the new artistic director’s first runway show in the position.
This choice says a lot about Anderson’s intentions. For several years, the luxury industry has gravitated toward simplified logos with straight, sober, linear capital letters. Dior, Burberry, Saint Laurent, Celine, Balenciaga, and Calvin Klein have all yielded to the temptation of the minimalist brand logo. This typographic standardization has been dubbed “blanding,” a portmanteau combining “branding” and “blend.” Whereas “branding” emphasizes the personal touch of one brand in relation to another, “blanding” underlines the growing tendency of brands to imitate one another until they end up being almost identical. Returning to the original Dior logo means not only reconnecting with a singular French identity, but also going against the grain of an era that has flattened the visual landscape of luxury.
This is not a purely aesthetic gesture. In the world of fashion, a logo doesn’t just sign a piece, it communicates a broader vision of design. Hedi Slimane understood this well when he erased Saint Laurent’s “Yves” in 2012, or removed Celine’s accent in 2018, affirming a new era for both houses. Daniel Lee made the same gesture by resurrecting Burberry’s equestrian knight, while Olivier Rousteing introduced a Balmain monogram to modernize the brand’s heritage. Every graphic transformation is important. At Dior, Jonathan Anderson doesn’t want to wipe the slate clean, but rather to show that the future of the house is built on the continuity of its history.
Reintroducing the Cochin logo means a recommitment to an identity. This French typography, oblique and subtle, speaks of something authentically Parisian. Where capital letters had imposed a form of international neutrality, this font reintroduces breath and personality. Today, the logo invites itself discreetly, embroidered on the edge of a sweater or the tongue of a shoe, as if to affirm that Dior doesn’t need to shout its name to be recognized. The gesture has the modesty of a detail but the impact of a manifesto. It’s also important to understand the context in which it takes place. The typographic popularity pendulum is swinging back toward serifs, typefaces with flourishes added to the ends of characters. Ferragamo, Phoebe Philo, and Burberry have already abandoned standardized sans-serifs in favor of more distinctive, embellished signatures.
In a saturated market, visual identity is as much a tool of differentiation as a hallmark of luxury. On the surface, the return to Cochin is a simple nod to the past. In reality, it’s quite the opposite: Anderson, as a visual storyteller, has chosen to use letters as the first chapter of the story he’s writing at Dior. It’s not nostalgia so much as a nod to the past, and a discreet sign that Dior, to remain eternal, must always remember where it came from.
Originally published on Vanity Fair France.
Eléa Guilleminault-Bauer
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