Raf Simons Blooms at Dior Haute Couture

Just when you think you can safely bet on Raf Simons, he throws a fringed and beaded wrench into the mix. Case in point: Monday's Fall 2014 Haute Couture collection in Paris. Where only months prior, the Belgian designer sent spectacularly pretty and feminine silk dresses and pants down a garden path runway, this round he showcased a decidedly more forward perspective, influenced by the seemingly infinite iterations of the modern woman. Perhaps Simons found time to read de Beauvoir in his scant free time.

There was a tiered dresses in red silk that conjured the image of a twirling matador; and an off-white and striped dress with a hemline like a Mexican tablecloth. Collarbones were often decorated with tubular necklaces that seem to reference sub-Saharan designs, while cloaks and kimonos morphed into outwear.

 

                  


Only six months ago, Raf Simons' genius bloomed at Dior's 2014 spring Haute Couture presentation, a benchmark in the designer's prolific inaugural year at the storied Parisian house. Crops of svelte models, their hair doused and slick like petals after heavy summer rain, maneuvered their ways down a white runway edged with shrubbery, flowering with looks that evoked the unfurling of exotic fauna. Simons' designs honored the legacy of Dior and the innovation of silhouette that has made the name eponymous with tempered elegance.

Dreams Van Noten

Have you ever come across a work of art that speaks to you so directly it's as though the artist stole a thought of yours? Or--if you were capable of welding steel--what's sitting in front of you would be exactly the thing you made?

I sustained the feeling reading all of Charles Simic's notebook The Monster Loves His Labyrinth, in snippets the first time I heard Nico's "These Days," and, most recently, viewing Dries Van Noten's Fall 2013 collection.

Last season, my love for his work was aspirational. His creations were articulations of dreams I had yet to have. Yes of course florals and plaid work together! Why not wear a kimono with a tea-length skirt? White sunglasses and mussed hair: I'm there.

This seasons I--by no means uninspired by the man's past work--found myself ingesting DVN's collection while wearing a coordinating outfit.

Slacks under cocktail dresses? I've been doing that all season! (I hate black tights, by the way.)

Tons of textured volume? I just so happen to have purchased a vintage Parisian brown lambswool skirt two weeks ago!

Baggy sweaters and long skirts? Pfff.

Drop-waists, head-to-toe prints, oxfords, and socks with sandals? So on it.

 

 

This collection, besides being one easy to mock, is interesting. It's fresh and cosmopolitan. I'm inspired to throw a pair of patterned pants beneath a 1940s black drop-waist dress I've had since Wilmington, when I purchased it on credit at a vintage store where I worked. Small tangent: You never know what you will discover while vintage shopping, and so often your explorations lead you to beautiful craftsmanship, these crepe silk creations, you never knew existed. What better way to clad oneself than in mystery and surprise. 

Model images courtesy of Elle.com

All collages the work of Francesca Soroka

 

Armani Prive

aka to die for. I love the decadence of silk, rich reds, and serious headpieces. It's a bit Art Deco-meets-The-New-Millennium. Also, let's talk about the pants under the dress. I'm a fan (and we saw it last season at The Row, among other places.) It's tough and chic at the same time, don't you think?

Highness

These looks from Valentino's Paris couture show (Bazaar)  are fit for a queen.

Dries Van Noten

It's as though Dries Van Noten crawled in through my ear and sketched from the hazy outlines of my dreams. His collection was filled with exactly the sort of thing I'd don at 27 while living in Paris, writing and gazing from ancient stone balconies onto the cafe scenes below.

 

Photos: Vogue

Dior Moment

There were the requisite LBDs done to perfection and exaggerated silhouettes that nipped at the waist and nodded to the brand's history, but this season's Dior collection for Spring and Summer did more than meet expectations.

Raf Simons embraced the 2013 season with fabrics, lines, and color combinations that were decidedly twenty-first century. His dresses seemed laser-cut, the colors glossed with iridescent space dust. Whereas other designers may have cowed to the brand's history, Simons made it his own. And in the midst of a fashion moment that seems to teeter between two extremes--the ugly chic of the '70s or pared-down Minimalism--Simon's did neither. He embraced 2013--the first year to break The Jetsons barrier that is, after all, just about to be our present.



 photos: WhoWhatWear