New York – It appears that Raf Simons won’t be replaced anytime soon. According to WWD
and Vogue, Dior’s collections for the next two seasons will be designed by
their in-house design teams. For the present moment, this might put an end
to the ongoing speculation of who will fill the coveted creative director’s
chair at Dior. However, it’s no secret that fashion industry insiders love
a good round of designer musical chairs.
Alber Elbaz, who departed his post at Lanvin in October, and Bill Gaytten,
creative director of John Galliano, have all been flouted as potential
replacements for Simons.
Dior was not immediately available for comment regarding their upcoming
collections.
While it might seem like a lot of cooks could be spoiling the pot, the 2014
documentary “Dior and I,” which gave a behind the scenes look at the house
of Dior, showed that the luxury label has many gifted designers and
seamstresses in place. They might be lacking a creative director, but there
is no lack of design talent within the company.
Perhaps the brand could take the Gucci route and promote a creative
director from within. How much longer can one of the most influential
luxury labels in the world go on without a ruler on its creative throne?
When Simons left, rumor had it that it was in part because the number of
collections he had to produce was becoming too much for him to handle. As
creative director of Dior, he was responsible for six collections a year.
Whoever takes over for him will have some major designer shoes to fill, and
an even bigger creative and time commitment on their hands.
The in-house team will be responsible for the spring 2016 couture
collection, in addition to the pre-fall 2016 collection. Dior does not
identify any members of their design team, taking the same approach they
did during the expulsion of former Dior creative director John Galliano in
2011.