Bar jackets, full skirts, asymmetrical capes all feature in the collection Having only been in the position 11-months, Raf Simons has managed to successfully build his own breed of the Dior brand. In the latest ready-to-wear collection unveiled at Paris Fashion Week, he brings Dior to the people by showcasing clothes that are practical and feminine.
We’ve seen a lot of this at the shows this season – but Simons likes to be in touch with culture, the young and the new, what's going on now.
Dior collaborated with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for the recurring hand-drawn motifs on chiffon wisps of dresses in white and black. But this surrealist element had been paved before that - the silver balloon setting of the catwalk, the sky and clouds projected onto it, ready for Simons' codes - old and new - to play out.
The collection featured dresses in black and white and smothered in blooms or a new working of Dior's houndstooth print. There were the Bar jackets and the full skirts kept youthful at knee lengths, as well as a muted and controlled colour palette - blush, grey, black and white - with only a burst of scarlet here and there to make its point.
I particularly liked the asymmetrical capes sat on shoulders but worked to form the top half of a look, while Oxford bags made for the trouser style of choice, worn with elegant Dior jackets.
With the three previous collections that Simons has created for the house, he has put his building blocks in place and now with this collection he is very much building on them.