At the spring-summer 2015 haute couture week Raf Simons showed, perhaps, the most “anti-Dior” collection since his arrival in the fashion house as a creative director in April 2012.
If at the beginning, according to the designer himself, he “tried the pen”, focusing attention on the study of archives and developing a recognizable lexicon of Dior, then in the latter show Simons have finally closed the last page, with all its lady-like silhouettes, classic bar jackets and rose flowers – echoes of the favorite garden of Christian Dior in Granville, Normandy.
Raf, without a regard to a possible lack of nobility intrinsic to haute couture, dresses her heroine in plastic (semitransparent raincoat with floral patterns). Guipure trapezoid dresses he complements with vinyl stockings-boots. Actively uses sequins to create one piece suits in a “prison” stripe. Experiments with color, surely not limiting himself to tenderness of pastels or to the favorite of French designers “tricolor” (red, white, blue).
Graphic accuracy of certain looks, inspired by futurism of seventies, leaves no stone unturned in the “Dior, to which we are accustomed.” Seventies, fifties, sixties – Simons skillfully blends the stylistic elements of several decades, presenting to the audience a cocktail of sculptural-cut images, minimalism and androgyny as the new form of femininity.
One can endlessly debate on the topic of how far the collections of Raf Simons are from the spirit of the fashion house with more than half a century of history. But have no doubt: the Belgian managed to revolutionize the very classic that is, a priori, is not a subject to the influence of time. And already for that his work deserves respect.
Photo credits: Christian Dior Couture