By Giulia Piceni. Cover image by Anano Esartia.
Jonathan Anderson, in his current role as creative director of Dior, did not need a runway to send the fashion ecosystem into a frenzy. All it took was a single photo. He is sitting on a simple chair facing a tarot spread so large and intricate it resembles a map of his inner landscape. He is smiling in a way that feels unexpectedly soft. The internet saw it and spiraled. Why would someone so famously meticulous someone whose mind we imagine as geometric and airtight consult tarot at all? This surprise reveals more about our collective imagination of Anderson — an image reinforced by his recent 2025 Fashion Award, the third he has won in a row — than about him. For years social media has sculpted his persona into that of a cool controlled architect of fashion, a man with a deep past but a perfectly guarded present. Seeing him in conversation with an ancient symbolic language suddenly opened a window, a reminder that even the most rational creators seek guidance and reflection. And for me the image triggered a memory of the first fashion book I ever read at sixteen the biography of Christian Dior and of a story that feels almost predestined to reemerge now.
The Tarot Reading That Predicted Christian Dior’s Fortune
In Dior’s biography the opening scene takes place in 1919 during a charity fair raising money for soldiers in Granville. The very young Christian Dior attends dressed as what the book describes as a gypsy, a portrayal that today feels uncomfortable yet historically revealing of the period. Wandering through the fair he encounters a gypsy hand reader seated on a small theatrical platform. She studies his palm and tells him that one day when he will have no money but that women will determine his success. From women he will gain fortune and because of this he will cross the ocean many times. This prophecy stayed with him for life and as his career unfolded he recognised each part of it coming true. It became an invisible thread guiding him, reminding him of something larger than circumstance. Knowing this it becomes strangely moving to witness another Dior creative director drawn to a symbolic or divinatory practice.
Why Tarot and Mysticism Are Reshaping How We Navigate Uncertainty
Our feeds are now filled with tarot readers, spell work rune symbols, glamour rituals and every possible manifestation of contemporary mysticism. This is not simply aesthetic. It exposes a cultural truth. The dominant narratives around us no longer feel safe, reassuring or capable of offering certainty. Traditional structures have lost their authority. In their absence people turn to older knowledge systems that feel intuitive, symbolic and emotionally resonant. The rise of alternative fashion, alternative music and alternative spirituality share the same root: the main road no longer promises meaning. We seek other paths, roads that may offer guidance or at least a sense of self. In this landscape Anderson’s tarot spread becomes more than a curiosity, but rather a mirror of our collective mood. His search for clarity echoes the searches we all conduct in the privacy of our scrolling.
From Dior to Anderson: How Tarot Reveals the Human Side of Fashion
There is a poetic symmetry between Dior’s hand reading in Granville and Anderson’s tarot reading on Instagram. Two figures separated by more than a century and yet both drawn toward forms of knowledge that help them navigate uncertainty. Dior found reassurance in his prophecy. Anderson seems to find contemplation in his cards. This parallel, further accustomed by global conflicts in the background, reveals something fashion often conceals. Even the most accomplished and seemingly indestructible individuals experience moments of fragility and seek tools that help them interpret their paths. Knowing that a man who has to design for a global house lead countless teams and withstand constant cultural scrutiny still turns to the cards for insight makes him human. And it subtly reminds us that in times like ours we all look for guidance whether through history, intuition, symbols or rituals. Perhaps this is what truly connects us to the icons we admire: not perfection but the shared desire to understand what comes next.
