We look at Dior’s refreshing approach to luxury fashion in a laid-back and unrestricted couture show where Meier and Ruffieux introduced “couture’s new realism” as a nostalgic journey through the brand’s iconic history, together with signature touches of Raf’s modern sensibility.
By Aishwarya Tyagi
Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2016
As fashion spectators took their seats in the mirrored tent at the familiar landscape of Musée Rodin, the evening unfolded with an intense pace. Dior’s design team heads Serge Ruffieux and Lucie Meier presented a confident couture collection for the woman on the go with new innovations in construction and movement exuding modernity and sensuality.
The presence of former artistic director Raf Simons could still be felt at the show as the in-house team employed his modernist approach to luxury fashion, and the brand’s signature touches could be seen in reinvented pieces reprising a mix of paneled embroideries and a streamlining of the Bar jacket, enlarged into a hip-length camel coat.
Pleated ruffles were abstractions of Dior’s 1949 Junon gown which were reinvigorated with small sprays of tulle sheltering 3-D embroidered patterns. Long silk skirts came with slits and pleating that gave them a seductive movement and shorter, A-line skirts also came with extra folds of fabric, which transported us to the New Look that caused a sensation almost seven decades ago. Bare sensual shoulders and feminine cuts creating motion with every movement conveyed confidence in the brand’s easy-to-wear ethos.
Designers Serge Ruffieux and Lucie Meier acknowledge the audience during the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2016
While the fashion world awaits the announcement of Dior’s next visionary leader, the favoured house offers all the excitement and innovation that we have come to expect from Dior haute couture.
