Paris - RTW SS13 - Christian Dior

City: Paris
Season: Ready-To-Wear, Spring/Summer 2013
Show: Christian Dior

Arrivederci, Milan. Bonjour, Paris! Following on from his first (and, for the record, very successful) couture show as creative director of Christian Dior, former Jil Sander designer Raf Simons has gone one step further to shake up the house’s DNA this spring. Some of the fashion cognoscenti were alarmed by Simons’ decision to open the show with a sleek black trouser suit - see Daria Strokous (top left) - but I on the other hand see it as a step in a new, fresh and therefore very appropriate direction. While interim design director Bill Gaytten’s collections were by no means dissatisfying they were, truthfully, rather like a stopgap scouring of the Dior archives. There was nothing new about them. With Simons at the helm, however, the house is hurtling headlong into the future - the fabled New Look is being given, yes, a new look. The Dior woman is still as ineffably glamorous as ever, but no longer is she a throwback to a more oppressive age. Shape-wise the focus was still on the waist, one need only look at Daiane Conterato (centre) for proof of this, but as the show went on the shapes took on more fluted, voluminous proportions. Jac Jagaciak’s closing look (bottom left) - is it a dress or isn’t it? - was pure Raf Simons, glamour reinvented. Never mind restrictive bodices and corsetry, all you need for twenty-first century sophistication is a black sweater and a show-stopping skirt. I would like to close with a comment about the make-up, namely those eyes, expertly painted by the formidable Pat McGrath.

This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in October 2012.