In the recent Dior Spring-Summer 2016 Ready-to-Wear Show, it was all about the distinct naturalistic line of beauty, gazing towards the future through the anterior. Dior’s Artistic Director Raf Simons explored many non-essential elements to focus on the idea of purity of line and precision in technique to discover the effortlessness for the future.
Simons wanted the collection to have a sense of purity to it. He said, “To simplify and concentrate on a line that expressed an idea of femininity, fragility and sensitivity without sacrificing strength and impact; there might be a sense of simplicity in how the collection looks, but it is extremely complex in terms of technique. There are literal layers of the past, from the Victorian-style underwear layered under the transparent bias cut dresses and the Bar jackets and rough knits, but for me it still all feels oddly futuristic and strangely romantic. Like this woman is about to travel through space and time.”
The corporeal and disciplined, the feminine and masculine, the classic and the contemporary all merged together to discover and structure an original, softer, model of futurism in the collection. Remains of the past stroked with the present linking the historical patterns and peculiar techniques engaging to the utilitarian and unisex garments. The feminine tailleur leagued with masculine tailoring to find new configurations of three piece suit with horizontal pin striping and a more opulent cut of military inflected jackets; the traditional, complex pleating techniques of the flou proliferate, finding outline not only in dresses but in the ruffling hems of tailored jackets and parkas transformed into horizontal striped duchesse satin; sinuous, bias cut transparent organdie dresses reveal delicate cotton cami-knickers and chemise that can also be layered with cropped, rough hewn, Shetland knits; the defined geometry in the cut of customarily heavy historical sleeves, is highlighted in feather light transparencies set against flesh.
The assortment moves from the self-contained, cultivated garden of the ‘femme fleur’ towards what could be seen as a new terrain, at once more naturalistic and unknown. A flowered landslide was seen in the Cour Carrée du Louvre, absconding the conventional bounds of the show venue and pouring inside and out; a soft, fluid landscape of the future.
Simons wanted to look at something rougher and more natural than the garden. He adds, “At the same time, and just as in nature, I wanted to find a new kind of precision, purity and ease. A fragment of what is to come.”
AN EYE ON FASHION 