Dior goes back to basics as Chiuri waits in wings

With Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri
expected to take the reins at Christian Dior within days, the French fashion
house went back to its eminently wearable roots in its Paris haute couture
show Monday.

Swiss pair Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux, who have been holding the fort
since the shock departure of Belgian designer Raf Simon last October, did
not
try to reinvent the wheel before handing over to Valentino’s Chiuri.
Instead they returned to one of founder Christian Dior’s favourite visual
tricks — contrasting black and white.

A video posted by Paris Fashion Week
(@parisfashionweek) on Jul
4, 2016 at 8:16am PDT

Apart from a few sprinkles of gold leaf, the typically feminine
collection
— shown before a celebrity-studded audience that included singer Celine
Dion
and actress Marion Cotillard — comprised only the two colours.
The pair, who won warm applause at the end, quoted the master himself who
said, “White is simple, pure and goes with everything… while I could
write a
whole book about black.”

While they paid tribute to the expertise of the famous Dior couture
studios, speculation grew that Chiuri’s appointment was imminent.
A well-placed source told AFP last week that the 52-year-old Italian had
been anointed to take over the luxury French brand.
Chiuri has turned around the fortunes of Valentino with her longtime
creative partner Pierpaolo Piccioli, making it one of the hottest and most
profitable houses in Europe.
Neither Dior nor Valentino would comment on her possible appointment, nor
whether Piccioli would be joining her.

Sensual Van Herpen

If Dior may have lacked invention, the brilliant Dutch designer Iris van
Herpen made up for it in spades.
In what was the most poetic and subtly suggestive show of the season thus
far, she created a line of exquisite high tech dresses inspired by the
Japanese concept of “seijaku”, of “finding serenity amidst life’s chaos”.

Three dresses in particular stood out amongst creations presented like
art
installations in a baroque church to the sound of Zen bowl music played live
by Japanese musician Kazuya Nagaya.
The first, an almost transparent bubble dress made from more than “one
thousand .. hand-blown glass bubbles in transparent silicone, creates a
bioluminescent prism around the body,” the designer said.

“Haunting and hypnotic atmosphere at the @irisvanherpen presentation, the girls appearing like ghostly beings. The collection made me feel as if I was discovering as yet unknown stunningly beautiful organisms” by @clymdraws. #INSTACOUTURE #coutureguestmember #irisvanherpen

A photo posted by Paris Fashion Week (@parisfashionweek) on Jul 4, 2016 at 4:56am PDT

Another sheer creation used a similar technique to coat “tens of thousands
of Swarovski water drop crystals” to give the idea of “wet skin covered in dew
drops”. While the third exuded a subversive sensuality with pearl-coated cotton and
tulle cut to resemble opening oysters.
Van Herpen, however, said it was inspired by the study of “cymatics, which
visualises sound waves”.

“For me it is very important to show that fashion can do different things.
Innovation is needed, craftmanship, showing that there is a different way of
making a garment. We have to move on,” she told AFP.
“I was very inspired by my visits to Japan, it is a beautiful culture,” she
added.
In contrast, Schiaparelli paid homage to its famous “Circus” collection of
1938, when its founder Elsa Schiaparelli roped in surrealist artists including
Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau to help her design her fabrics. (AFP)

Floating silhouette with warm colors @elsaschiaparelli by @richard_haines. #INSTACOUTURE #schiaparelli #coutureguestmember

A photo posted by Paris Fashion Week (@parisfashionweek) on Jul 4, 2016 at 7:36am PDT

Photos: Dior Haute Couture AW ’16/17, Twitter