When Raf Simons left his position as creative director at Christian Dior last year, half the fashion world gasped, the other half breathed a sigh of relief.
Whether you loved him or hated him, it cannot be denied that his work at Dior was pivotal in opening the door to a younger public and placing the brand within the market of today’s fashion.
Simons’ practicality and minimalism was a breath of fresh air after the years of 90s extravagance under the guide of John Galliano. He transported us back to Monsieur Dior’s original vision of simplicity and elegance, while rethinking the cuts and textures to shake off the dust of 50 years of boredom.
Simons did not merely present a return to the essentials. As he stated after his first Dior show back in 2012, he wanted to “bring some emotion back”. Creating emotion from minimalism is not easy. Indeed, the sometimes reductive nature of such esssentialisations of form can stifle sentiment .Has Dior managed to retain the emotion in his absence?
The maison has not yet been able to find a suitable replacement but the work doesn’t stop at the atelier. A team of seven, including Mesdames Monique Bailly and Florence Chehet, whom you might remember from Frédéric Tcheng’s documentary Dior & I, designed and constructed the Haute Couture collection that was showcased in Paris a couple of weeks ago. The bar jacket was the undisputed protagonist in neutral autumnal colours, either grazing the hips or elongated to the calves, delicately balanced atop sumptuous dresses. The team honoured Simons’ legacy by combining fluid curves with more structural pieces, as in some of the jackets that were aggressively pulled down the shoulders in an awkward attempt to convey a Parisian effortlessness that was never there.
The team borrowed loosely from the archives, focusing the attention on precise needlework that decorated dresses and coats alike. However, it was also influenced by contemporary fashion, as seen in the Gothic transparencies worth of Hedi Slimane and the 70s-inspired pieces á la Ghesquière.
Ultimately, the collection was nothing short of beautiful, with an attention to details that, if taken a step further, could have meant the beginning of something great.
However, perhaps because it did not come from a single mind, it lacked a certain cohesion. There was no leitmotif, no invisible string to connect the pieces; rather it was a sequence of clothes that tasted of anonymity. Indeed, the bar jacket was there; the accentuated silhouettes was there; so was a hint of richness in the sparkling details. Yet, something important was missing: a Dior story, a vision – that grace and grandeur that is pure Haute Couture.
