You could have been mistaken for thinking you were actually at a Dior show when Mr Dior himself was at the helm at this afternoon’s spring/summer 2012 couture offering from the fashion house – such was its nostalgic nod to the Fifties and the very real and wearable wardrobe put on display at Avenue Montaigne.
“The models could have stepped straight from Mad Men,” said Alexandra Shulman after the show, noting their side-parted bobs, the penchant for pencil skirts and very high court shoe heels. It was for women who really want to invest and invest in pieces they can wear and there were very beautiful day dresses, dogtooth checks and plenty of waisted pencil skirts to do just that.
Bill Gaytten, who has a tough job on his hands while Dior’s predicament still remains unresolved, had said that the idea behind the collection was seeing things in X-ray, seeing Dior in X-ray – which accounted for the very waisted ensembles and the overall feminine feel to the collection (one look with what looked like black pen scribbled at its hem), and the concentration on light, transparent fabrics such as gauze and chiffon. It was the complete opposite to John Galliano fantasy. It was very wearable,
Just as we had seen at Versace earlier in the day, there were some Fifties knickers in there too – an interesting trend to be emerging from the couture shows.
The finale was underpinned by huge ballgowns and momentarily went back to that Galliano grandeur. Everything was cinched and waisted and cocktail dresses in silk came with sprinklings of crystals. There was a concentration of white, black and grey and the odd dash of brilliant red. Overall, it was understated in the scheme of couture and though very pretty lacked that mesmerising fantasy element and was perhaps too big a shift a direction into wearable.
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