At
Paris Fashion Week, Dior Homme’s Fall/Winter 2016 collection conquered the
runway thanks to Kris Van Assche, who mixed sportive and streetwear influences,
giving a very youthful and young imprint to the Maison’s male proposal. First
row show’s special guests were nonetheless but Karl Lagerfeld, Noomi Rapace,
ASAP Rocky, Glen Powell, Christian Slater and Dan Carter: nobody wanted to miss
Kris Van Assche’s latest performance for Dior Homme.
Kris
Van Assche gets inspired by 90’s skaters culture and takes ideas from the 80’s
New Wave. Highly neat silhouettes as well as the sartorial aspect of the
designs, tight waisted two-buttons blazers, combined with slim and tapered or
very large and baggy pants. Really variegated is also the outerwear proposal:
from the camel coat to the cashmere jackets and parkas.
The atmosphere
inside the Tennis Club reminds us to an alternative club. On the images taken
from a Willy Vanderperre film, realized just for the occasion and beamed on a
maxi screen, Dior men came across surrounded by a red light, on a skate park-Versailles
parquet-catwalk walking on a Nitzer Ebb background track as to re-invoke to an
alternative night in a Parisian flat.
The whole FW16 collection
thought and designed by Kris Van Assche represents this hybrid between two
worlds: the sartorial Dior Homme tradition colliding into a young style, urban
and very contemporary. Reinvented and reinterpreted, the more formal male wardrobe
pieces melt together in a urban style imbued to sportswear and to the street
style codes. The blazers clothe themselves of leather, the quilted coats look
like down anoraks, the traditional bicolour Polo shirts sleeves’ edges migrate
onto shirts and jackets. Walking down the runway are new Dior men who wear beanies
and caps. Young skater-styled citizens but with a high sense of tailoring. They
wear jogging pants with formal jackets and large shirts underneath the suits;
jackets with applied pockets, workwear inspired, are made of cashmere, while parkas
are made of foal leather. They mix anything with tartan coats of Fair Isle
shirts, jeans adorned by frayed embroideries or painted in grey brush strokes,
jackets embellished with chains or floral-motives anoraks reminding of an
inspiration dear to Monsieur Dior. «The
collection takes elements from the past, putting them into the present to
reflect and think about modernity, on today’s situation; it’s the moment of a
contemporary generation», concludes Kris Van Assche.
Dior Homme Fall/Winter
2016 show’s accessories replicate the collection imagined by Kris Van Assche: a
fusion between the street style influences and the Maison spirit. To sign this
season’s Dior men style, a tricot cap with peak and pom-pom. Inspired by the
skateboard universe, which dictates the tones and shades of the collection,
born under the star of hybridization, with accessories that revolutionize codes
and silhouettes, as black pearls necklaces studded by silver and red charms,
which highlight the shirts’ necks, the rings, which hold two fingers, and shoes
inspired by those of skaters’, worn with a suit. Final touch of these new-style
looks, the leather goods that reexamines the historical Dior monogram in grey and black with red tartan motifs or
embroideries on backpacks and handbags.
A
majestic chandelier contrasts with the red neon light, on a Versailles parquet
stand out skateboard ramps. Dior Homme’s FW16 show set translates into
architectural terms the influences mix which has inspired the great contemporary
collection of Kris Van Assche. As if a very traditional Parisian style flat had
been transformed into a association club or an urban environment. The silhouettes
simultaneously make their appearance walking down the runway and dancing on a
gigantic screen on the background, starring in Willy Vanderperre’s film.
Dior
Homme’s FW16 collection’s staple is surely the red and black tartan, reinterpreted
in each of the looks. Through frayed embroideries, Assche revisits the Maison’s
atelier’s savoir-faire to reinterpret a must have of Dior Homme’s wardrobe: the
blazer suit jacket.
«Channeling a quest for youthful coolness based on the house's signature
garments, Kris Van Assche brought Dior Homme to the next level by rejuvenating
the brand's menswear staples. Presented on a skater-park-resembling set, Kris Van Assche revealed an
outdoor and street-wear inspired offering that came with late 80s and early 90s
references in terms of shapes and fits and, interestingly, inserted formality
and precise tailoring into it».
Shades of black, cognac,
intense red, bordeaux, white, burgundy, beiges, brown and grey coloured cashmeres,
wool fabrics, technical cloths, nylons, cool wools, waterproof rags, shearlings,
treated denims, cotton poplins, wool knits, tweeds, printed cottons and lisle. Yet
again, proper bows instead of bow-ties, aviator sunglasses and glasses, beanies
with peaks, sneakers, monk shoes, wool muffs, maxi scarves, over-handbags, overnight
bags, check printed motives on backpacks and lisle contrasting socks.
Dior Homme’s FW16 show raised a few questions. Who decided that the peaked
beanie should make a comeback? How much did that chandelier cost? Was someone going
to skate those quarter pipes? While Dior SS16 saw the house play with
military themes, this time around Kris Van Assche’s models marched around a
runway littered with neon-lit skate ramps. Van Assche’s aesthetic was anchored
around a punchy palette of black and red. The garments were visually striking,
thanks to that colour scheme, but patchy in execution and concept. This being a
multi-million dollar luxury house, there were some sure-fire commercial successes:
elongated biker jackets, shearling bombers and florals all looked like they’d
fly off the shelves. Various boot/shoe/sneaker hybrids added some macho
hardness to the house’s polished aesthetic».
«“Bright reds - scarlet, pillar-box
red, crimson or cherry - are very cheerful and youthful. There is certainly a
red for everyone”, wrote Christian Dior in his Little Dictionary of Fashion.
Yesterday these words gained poignancy as Kris Van Assche invited us into a
stark Tennis Club de Paris soaked in lava red neon light. And youthwasvery much in play. But perhaps not the
‘cheerful’, happy-go-lucky archetype Dior was referring to, Van Assche’s shade
of red came with an aggressive bite, and his man was one driven by a
progressive grit and joyful zest. “Traces of memory and tradition can still
exist, but these happen without nostalgia: this is the hybridisation of now”, mused
Van Assche in the show notes. This season was about the here and now, why yearn
for the past when there’s a nascent scene bubbling right under your very nose?Skinheads, Berlin New Wave, grunge, punk, these iconic
tribes were all present, yet blended and spat out in a DIY hybrid owned by the
youth of today. For today’s tribes are more multifaceted then once was the
case. Plundering tropes from assorted subcultures and creating afresh is the
norm within this carpe diem generation. Knowing what preceded you is always
valuable education, however it doesn’t automatically come with a nostalgic
longing. The Dior Homme FW16 man has no time to yearn for a bygone era, he’s
busy revelling in the moment. This wasn’t a rejection of the past, it was
simply an embrace of the present».
Dior
Homme's designer Kris Van Assche is not unlike his former colleague Raf Simons.
Simons departed Dior last year and his first collection after his departure was
a triumph. Last year, Kris Van Assche shuttered his eponymous label and his
first Dior Homme collection after, this one, was equally a triumph.
It's a story about two room mates who just love living their lives. Join our journey. «To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.»
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