Everything was as usual at the Christian Dior Haute Couture show: the same venue, the sense of occasion that this storied house of fashion commands. The only difference, as the world well knows, is that it is currently operating without a creative director. Instead, it was a young team, which looked to be in their 20s and 30s, that ran out to take their bows at the end of the show. Collectives are very à la mode in Paris now (the friends behind Vetements being the prime example), but it’s fair to say that six months ago, this crew never imagined they’d be out front, taking the credit for a grand show in a vast mirrored marquee in the gardens of the Musée Rodin. Nor did Dior’s management, which is now dealing with the interim between the surprise resignations of Raf Simons and Pieter Mulier, who was the creative director’s full-time number two in-house.
A Dior press representative names Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux as the heads of studio who stepped up to fill the void. They were smiling as they made a brief appearance before running off, and they deserved to feel happy with the job they’d done—primarily of continuing the feeling that Dior has to belong to a younger, modern world. Simons began that mission, of course. In the hands of a more junior group, it became softer, more casual than their former boss’s theoretical approach—a sensibility patchworked through a visual prism belonging to people who’ve grown up with Prada, Marni, Céline, and Marc Jacobs.
That’s not to say that they disrespected Dior house codes. While dispensing with corseted structure, they honored waist emphasis with fit-and-flare silhouettes, short sparkly dresses, and a couple of plain bell-shaped evening midis with asymmetric necklines fastened with bows in the back. The white “Bar” jacket, with narrow sleeves, flounced cuffs, and a sprinkling of jeweled lilies of the valley, worn over a black pencil skirt, slit at one side and fanning out as the model walked, read as the nearest thing to “couture” this collection attained.
What it skipped was a sense of grandeur or build-up. There was no ball gown finale to answer the hanging question as to what Jennifer Lawrence might wear to the Academy Awards—though that’s usually arranged as a bespoke off-runway matter anyway. The bigger question is who will be brought in to take over the direction of this house. There is talent in the ranks of Dior, and it may be that, long-term, this baptism of fire will produce stars. Shorter term, the fashion world waits to find out who will become Dior’s next visionary leader.
