Luxury fashion brands are feeling a major youth movement this season. Just a week after Miuccia Prada sent down fresh faces clad in saccharine sweet pastels in Milan, tonight Raf Simons offered Paris an Instagram-ready collection for the house of Dior within the Louvre Museum Cour Carrée show space.
By Christopher Prince
A catwalk stomped in Lucite heels and lamp swirl skirts with girls sporting slick side ponytails and hooded eyes - autumn/winter 2015 provided a new camouflage for the Dior women. Simons continued in a similar creative vein as his haute couture collection, swinging the pendulum of the avant-garde with the wearable. Amid the sixties amoeba motifs and plastic mesh explorations Simons married a sharp sense of graphicism – seen in the fully realised printed jumpsuits - with a strong showing of outerwear.
Still there were those familiar archival silhouettes – a new riff on the fifties belted skirts and nipped in waists, vital elements to a Dior collection. Dior Esprit showcased in Tokyo last December was a concerted effort by Simons to showcase his creative process, and this season was no less of an experimental exploration for the designer. Simons retained the elegance of the Dior woman in elongated silhouettes; most arrived high-necked and sleeved or laced with chainmail collars on starched white cotton shirting.
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A movement in fur was a new foray for the designer who savagely pieced together animal hide on coats dipped in iridescent hues. The jacquard knits and tattoo-embroidered silks of last season fed into looks dominated by colour. Simons offered archival hues of vermilion, ochre and chartreuse alongside fresher shades of turquoise, cream and baby pink – counterbalancing the graphic nature of the clothes.
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In the front row presence of 18-year-old music maverick, Lorde and actress Hailee Steinfeld, today’s Dior show provided ample proof of where Simons was transporting his brand. With show notes that referenced animals, ‘instinctive and elegant,’ Simon’s managed to encapsulate the modern, new age woman.
