In the six months since Hedi Slimane's last show, rocker Pete Doherty, the troubled muse of that collection, has become a pop cultural id'e fixe—in England and certain pockets of Europe, at least. Slimane recently explored his own obsession with Doherty in the photo book London Birth of a Cult. But apparently, that wasn't enough to get him out of his system. Mr. Kate Moss's style returned to haunt the Dior Homme catwalk: The angular, rail-thin silhouette, the monochrome palette, the side-slashed, sleeveless tops, the skinny suspenders, the porkpie hats, all echoed Pete.
Predictably, the googly-eyed one was not there to receive this tribute in person (though he managed to perform at Hedi's birthday party later on). Instead, Mick Jagger was parked in the front row, a reminder that today's bad boys are just a pallid reflection of the past. Mick, of course, is probably one of the few men over 40 trim enough to slip effortlessly into Slimane's slivers of tailoring. This season's jackets and trousers were more attenuated than ever. Low-rise drainpipes clutched the groins of the teenage models. Jackets were cut high in the back with elongated tails dangling in front.
The precision of a little belted trench or cropped Sta-Prest slacks or a black-and-white sequined checkerboard of a top suggested English Mods (along with everything the Mods influenced, from New Wave and Two-Tone right up to Doherty, et al.). The shininess spotlighted the designer's predilection for decadent glamour, as ardent as his worship of gangs of English boys in pop groups. Both inclinations came together beautifully in a gold sequined jacket with a Union Jack on the back.
