Dior Couture Fall 2005
I've thought and thought about the Dior collection. It's so intriguing, and yet so elusive. I've decided that there's no way to do it justice or even make sense of it with only a few photos. You must see the entire collection, including all the detail shots. Here is a link to the complete Dior Couture collection. You may want to read Style's Runway Review first.
Basically, this collection begins with the fashions of Christian Dior's mother, and goes through the eras of the House of Dior, up to the present. Almost all the clothes are done in tulle, and so are transparent. They often have swatches of fabric attached here and there, or suggestions of the embellishment or fabric design picked out in beading or embroidery. What these are, are the embodiment of the toiles made up by the premiere main, with swatches of the fashion fabric, beading, trim, etc. attached for the workroom. The models wear corset style bodysuits beneath these garments. Some are made to represent the custom dressforms made for clients of the house. This collection will have an obvious appeal to the student of design, dressmaking and style. Details are laid bare that usually are quite hidden.
I see this as a transitional collection which is bridging to what John Galliano will bring us next season. There's not a whole lot here that I can imagine actually applying to our wardrobes, or even being intended to apply, but the whole feel of it brings the House of Dior strongly to the front of the "important" couture, and will leave viewers of fashion anxiously awaiting next season's couture, as well as the intervening RTW collections.
The only part that made no sense to me at all was the "Andean Peasant Couture" although it was very colorful and ethnic. It just didn't seem to fit in, and I may be reading it wrong; it may be intended to be Italian, but with those hats, I don't think so. Either way, it left me cold.
posted by Liana @ 10:56 PM
2 Comments:
D'accord! Saving the best for last, naturally.
Your comments on the Dior Haute Collection are very astute and intersting. This is one collection that I admit I initially did not like, from a pure clothing and wearability perspective, but which is quite interesting on an intellectual level because of the transparency and the way Galliano pays hommage to the designs of Dior's past. I think this collection pays considerable respect to the "art" of dressmaking and the skills and technique involved but there are also witty little bits of social commentary throughout as well. Galliano can be quite wicked after all.
I think the Andean Peasant Couture has strong ethnic influences, not Italian, and fits in to the entire theme in that there probably were Andean ethnic periods, as there have been many blips of "peasant couture" in the collections over the years. I like the way he intersperses designer interpretations of native fabrications and decoration with more outlandish and "primitive" aspects. I may be reading too much into this but I think Galliano is definitely commenting on the clash of worlds here as some of his more outlandish touches seem a tad more overt here. Perhaps it is a sign of intelligence that it left you cold.
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