Dior’s Homme’s AW10 collection title ‘Coal,’ pretty much says it all hard, empowering and multi-purpose. Dior Homme has been transformed by head designer Kris Van Assche this winter, gone is the slimline look Hedi Slimane pioneered during his early collections at Dior Homme. This season we are welcoming yet another, Dior New Look, one that is far more relaxed and a little rougher but will no doubt become as excepted as the Dior House’s past revolutionary deviations.
A fluid streamline of dark suiting and the occasional neutralizing nude and gunmetal grey number flowed onto the Paris runway in a flurry of layered assertion. Hemlines were fuller than usual and varied from foot to navel and everywhere in between, often all in one look. Cropped pants, cowl necks and double layered jackets and vests were the statement makers of the show.
Traditional suiting was given an extraordinary twist, draped layers transformed jackets into cropped trench style coats whilst others had a vested layer both on top and underneath. A standout piece was one particular jacket that was literally double breasted on one side. Jackets were worn on jackets, then on vests and then on pristine collared shirts.
Garments were armed with a slightly glossy sheen, which was complimented by thick woolen and leather contrasts. Pinstripes from head to toe also made an appearance in more refined formal looks for the season, while thick scarves and vintage style satchels completed the Dior Homme AW10 look.
The collection’s title, ‘Coal’ is extremely fitting not only for the look of the collection but also in it’s revolutionary sense.
Just as coal bought power to the masses so has Dior, empowering them by putting them on par with the internet savvy fashion leaders. For the first time, the Dior Homme show was streamed live on the Internet for every end user to view.
This in itself raises questions about our future as an industry and as an individual, what happens when these two meet on equalized terms? When the trend is not first interpreted by the media and buyers and delivered to us in the glossy pages of magazines or on velour hangers in store, will consumers take the sartorial charge instead, dictating what we want to be the next big trend? The online revolution has, for better or worse, forged an alliance with yet another facet of the fashion industry; first there were bloggers (yes me), then entire online magazines (yes us at Tangent, and it goes with out saying that these were both for the best by the way!) then online show coverage, and now live shows for the shoppers. This is a little different to the others though; it shakes the core of the industry, when the revered designers make their vision so immediately available, the future of ‘fashion as fantasy’ is thrown into question. If the shows are no longer exclusive does this mean that the clothes are somehow less exclusive? No. That I am prepared to confirm, the price tag on the Dior quality of clothing still makes it a label for the elite but the trends…the trends are up for grabs, we can take it, break it and re make it in whatever way we chose before the fashion editors have even planned their glossy eight page spread about how we should wear these suits.
Online has made fashion accessible even if it isn’t really attainable and let’s face it Dior has always been the creator of our fashion dreams. This season every person whose fashion dream was attending a show at Paris Fashion week, has come a little closer to its realization. I can specifically remember an excited email from a friend last year who was about to attend their first Paris fashion show and somehow this doesn’t quite seem to measure up to his pre and post event elation, but hey, it’s a start. It does need to be said, though, that seeing the clothes on a flat screen is a little different to seeing them in all their 3D glory. So I think it is safe to say that the exclusivity of the fashion show is still alive and kicking us with its in person privileges. The editors will still have their say and their savvy eyes will still undoubtedly present the fashions in a whole new way that the average Joe never would have thought of, but the average Joe at least now has a heads up on what to start acquiring to assemble the look, so every one is a winner. Surely? Only time will tell what the consequences, good and bad, will be of this new online fashion foray.
This Winter Dior Homme has turned the fashion world upside down not only in silhouette but in showing, once we find our feet again though we are sure to be looking better than ever in Dior’s new look. The Dior Homme dream this winter is dark, sultry and slightly dangerous in that irresistible bad boy with a new silhouette and straight to a URL near you.
