here to destroy you

this queen

The Life of a Showgirl

[excerpt]

There was an elephant on the front row at the Dior couture show Monday in Paris, sandwiched somewhere between Sabrina Carpenter and Ejae and looming over all the proceedings: the still-secret design of the Dior wedding dress Taylor Swift had worn a mere three days earlier.

Was it more classic — i.e., cliché — Dior, or the more current, somewhat challenging Dior? Was it princess-y? Prom-like? Kinda conceptual? Was it, in other words, more like the image that Swift has been presenting to the world, at least onstage, or more like the one that the newish designer Jonathan Anderson has been building for the brand?

At a preview earlier in the day it was all anyone was whispering about (Anderson ducked his head and declined to comment). Ditto in the fern-filled environs of the show space, an open pavilion in the gardens of the Musée Rodin. A spokesman for the brand promised all would be revealed — at some point, after Swift herself posts the first pictures on her Instagram. They just weren’t sure when that might be.

The show didn’t necessarily offer any clues. But it did demonstrate why Swift might have thought Dior was the right brand for her in the first place.