Part fairytale, part church, part Ibiza nightclub (Raf’s words, not ours) yesterday’s Dior presentation certainly didn’t lack any contextual spirit on day two of Paris haute couture AW15.
By Christopher Prince
In a similar vein to Donatella Versace’s festivalgoer tribe who inhabited her orchid Perspex garden, Raf placed his Dior woman under the colour spectrum of a twinkling glasshouse carpeted in a purple grass lawn – an acid hallucination for every show attendee no doubt. It opened with a monastic undertone courtesy of a white chiffon gown, just opaque enough to take a suggestive second glance. Simons drew on his Flemish cultural heritage this season, pointedly referencing Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, and citing Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch’s, Garden of Earthly Delights, as an influence for the show. The painting depicts both Adam and Eve’s paradise alongside purgatory, it was this contrast that voiced Simons’s play on light with weight via hefty coats clasped tight at the breast by models.
That attitude proposed a new coat-cape hybrid for the designer that transitioned the naivety of the shows opener to new terrains. Abstract chainmail and deep slits voiced a secondary silhouette for the Dior woman, defying the conservative nature of the pretty sheer dresses for sophisticated evening gowns smattered in floral beadwork with fur stoles that made up coat sleeves. The sleeve gave Simons an opportunity to deconstruct Dior’s house codes, here it arrived slightly puffed at the shoulder or shrouded in bolero-like proportions, some even parted at the elbow allowing for a breezy flared effect. Much of what was shown established Simons’s intentions for the Dior house, to propel couture into newer, fresher horizons in attempt to capture a whole new clientele.
