It’s Already Cargo Shorts Season, According to Mona Tougaard

The opening look of Jonathan Anderson’s 2026 Dior Men show in Paris yesterday referenced an archival womenswear silhouette from the Belle Epoque-era designer, Paul Poiret. On the front row, however, Mona Tougaard flipped the script entirely. The Danish model arrived at the buzzed-about presentation wearing men’s cargo shorts.

Arguably the hero item from Anderson’s debut Dior Men show in June, Tougaard’s culottes were decidedly oversized. At the back, they featured panier-style pleats that nodded to archival Dior shapes from the 1940s and ’50s. The front side was designed with all the markings of traditional cargos, including sloped pockets, bell-shaped flares, and a low-slung waistline. Tougaard contrasted the louche feel of shorts by pairing them with something fitted up top. She layered a navy V-neck over a gray turtleneck, allowing for a sliver of her midriff to be visible. Leaning into the tomboy feel, Tougaard styled the look with un-laced Dior sneakers (another coveted item from the spring 2026 show) and striped ankle socks.

Tougaard’s outfit riffed on the opening look from the Dior Men spring 2026 show: a Bar Jacket, worn sans shirt, styled with fisherman sandals and those formed shorts. The idea was to reframe the archetypes of Dior for a modern audience.

“For me, it is a process of decoding the brand, and then from that, we hope to end up with a solution,” Anderson told reporters of the inspiration behind the collection. “I’m trying to kind of go back to, What is Christian Dior? I didn’t know much about Dior, so in a weird way, it’s a little like doing a PhD. You’re going in and trying to absorb it and then reconfigure it.”