Starting with the inspiration of Christian Dior’s Ligne H collection of autumn-winter 1954-55, Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones explores the metamorphosis of menswear this season. Simultaneously, there is a formal presentation of the men’s couture, featuring looks intertwined with the ready-to-wear, particularly at the beginning and the end of the show.
A notion of metamorphosis and shape-shifting runs throughout the collection. From the slippage of time periods, from one to another, to the changing garments of the archive, from feminine to masculine, to piece of clothing that actually changes – the coat that changes into a skirt.
A play of volumes is present throughout, from fitted to flared, particularly seen in the repetition of robes and ‘opera’ coats, with their full shapes belted and borrowed from the women’s archive. There is a concentration on the noblest fabrics and the noblest finishes. Silks and satins predominate, yet there is a strictness, rigor and monumentality to all. Despite their extravagance, silhouettes are somewhat stripped back. There is a play of light and sheen in finishes and shadows, particularly through controlled drapery and an idea of chiaroscuro that encompasses all.
The figure of Casanova permeates the collection and its presentation in the dual sense of the ‘ladies’ man.’ here, a mix of the masculine and feminine, of the influence of the women’s haute couture and the men’s ready-to-wear, together with the excesses of the eighteenth century, are found in an idea of the extravagant dresser, and the motif of the mask.
Leather goods echo a sense of duality, with the bags softly constructed, yielding forms contrasted by the purposeful punctuation of more masculine hardware. Soft, graspable Dior roller shapes in shearling are contrasted with Dior normandie totes in exceptional leather.
While ideas of masculine savoir-faire are combined with the more traditionally feminine in the construction of the shoes, where classic men’s leather dress shoes and Dior palmarès highly polished leather boots, are combined with a knotted satin toe cap – or ‘bow cap’, as it picks up on the recurring motif of the couture bow throughout the collection. Special order hand embroidered hybrid trainers featuring an archival shoe embroidery from 1961 also combine the extravagant with the excellent artisanship.
The main embroidery in the collection is taken from monsieur Dior’s spring-summer 1948 haute couture pondichéry look. The embroidery is recreated on the pink robe that closes the show, but its influence proliferates throughout the collection, its motifs borrowed for the jewelry, such as the sterling silver chatelaine, which is worn on the belt and features all the working accoutrements of the couturier. Other embroideries echo archetypal elements of menswear, such as the pinstripe and herringbone pattern, here overlaid and metamorphosed into more extravagant decoration. Or simply a sprinkling of raindrops, although with its varying sizing of clear glass beading and expert hand placement and sewing, these results are far from simple achievements.
