“I think it’s a new Dior,” says Pietro Beccari, the affable Italian who was appointed as the brand’s chief executive in November last year. One of Bernard Arnault’s most trusted lieutenants, Beccari, 50, is an LVMH high flyer. Before his move to Dior, he was responsible for Fendi’s rebirth as a kinetic, millennial-connected brand with a constant supply of consumer-pleasing novelty products. He replaced Sidney Toledano, Dior’s chief executive of 20 years, who increased its revenues tenfold.

Dior’s new men’s artistic director is Kim Jones, who arrived in March from Louis Vuitton. The two men share a long history: it was Beccari, a one-time vice-president of Louis Vuitton, who first hired Jones to the house in 2011. Hiring Jones was Beccari’s first big decision at Dior. “We started three months ago,” says Beccari. “My work is not yet visible, his work is visible today. But part of my work is in choosing him.”

The first show of their new regime was a major talking point. A huge spectacle dominated by a giant floral sculpture of Christian Dior — as rendered by the former graffiti artist known as Kaws — it featured Karl Lagerfeld, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss on the front row. Together with the Louis Vuitton debut of Virgil Abloh— who was also there to support Jones — it marked a major pivot in fashion. “With Vuitton and Dior, we have become the protagonists of a new way of looking at men’s fashion week,” says Beccari.