Police whistles, a chanting crowd, the city lullaby of angry car horns...it was business as usual outside the Dior couture show in Paris. But still, it was surprising business given that the designer now installed at the head of this illustrious French fashion house is the reclusive Belgian, Raf Simons.
IN PICTURES: Raf Simons' Dior Haute Couture debut
A former industrial furniture design student, Simons has hitherto eschewed the razzmatazz of the fashion-show-as-circus. During his tenure at Jil Sander, the minimalist fashion label, he was notorious for not giving interviews and for crowd dodging. His quiet but rigorously architectural take on femininity and his beautiful colour palettes still made waves, even in Hollywood, despite his policy of never inviting celebrities to his shows.
That was then. Dior is a much bigger company than Sander and they do things differently there. While Princess Charlene of Monaco posed on the grand stone staircase leading up to the first floor, Donatella Versace, vanilla-coloured hair almost reflective in the sunlight, smiled for the paparazzi outside, alongside the model Natalia Vodianova, who's now dating Antoine Arnault, son of Bernard, the head of LVMH.
IN PICTURES: Celebrities at Paris Haute Couture
"Lizbet" Lizbet!" yelled the photographers, as the luminous actress Isabelle Huppert tottered in, thin as a blade in black trouser suit. "Lizbet? Her name's Isabelle," said Donatella helpfully. Whatever.
The show was 40 minutes late and for a surprising amount of that time, the audience sat in hushed anticipation. Perhaps they'd been knocked out by the scent of the thousands of flowers that covered the walls from ceiling to floor. The industry has been waiting 18 months to see where Dior would go after the catastrophic car-crash of John Galliano's final years there. The answer, to judge from the 54 outfits Simons showed is back to the future.
READ: Raf Simons confirmed as artistic director of Dior
In the four months since his appointment, he has dug deep in the archives. But this was no slavish homage. Dior's original 1947 New Look was a bulky, padded, majesterial affair. Galliano's versions were more exaggerated still. Simons scaled down the width of those skirts, although by elongating the waists he ensured their impact was just as dramatic. Incorporating the signature 'Bar Jacket' into black trouser suits or turning it into a tuxedo-dress, and relocating its cupped pockets so that they now sit over the breasts of bustiers, were three more ideas that worked beautifully as instant updaters. As were the arrow-sharp stiletto court shoes - classic from the front, but with a sculpted, curved heel, worn either with full or pencil skirts or skinny trousers.
There was much that was familiar - not only from the history books of Dior - but from his own canon. A pale pink 'New Look' dress and a red full skirted coat weren't a million miles from ones he designed at Jil Sander just before he left. For evening, it was more of the same: but embroidered and appliquéd, sometimes in patchwork panels. By avoiding theatrical gimmicks, he ran the risk of looking as though he hadn't done much, but this was a clever, subtle reworking of Dior's DNA, which promises well for collections to come, and delivered all that he wanted.
"I'm not interested in just doing couture that works in magazine pictures. I want it to be relevant" he said after the show. Yes he spoke: another departure from normality.
See more from Paris Haute Couture Week
Via: Paris Haute Couture: Christian Dior autumn/winter 2012
1 comments:
This collection got very mixed reviews. I looked into Raf Simons biography and discovered that not only he has background in industrial design, but also mostly worked on men's wear his entire career. This is very noticeable in his style for Dior too.
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