Dior's Global Vision

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/fashion/diors-global-vision.html

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PARIS — The models were laughing, the flowers were blooming and although Kanye West’s aggressive rap music with its mean lyrics was still pulsating, all seemed right with Christian Dior’s haute couture world.

But this version of the show Monday, at the start of the Paris autumn 2013 couture week, was a digitalized vision — enhanced reality from the catwalk created almost instantly by four iconic photographers: Patrick Demarchelier representing Europe; Willy Vanderperre for the Americas; Paolo Roversi for Asia and Terry Richardson for Africa.

They all had snapped the models off stage and posted the pictures on the surrounding walls, where the projections included a memory stick of floral images that the designer Raf Simons used in his first Dior couture show just a year ago.

The sense of place was crucial to the story: the United States, sporty; Asia, traditional purity; Africa: the freedom of the colorful Masai, and Paris, Christian Dior’s historic Parisienne.

It sounds like a lot to digest. And it was, as if the designer had attached various, swinging pieces of fabric — and there were plenty — to a global wheel. Here came Paris, a variation on tweed suits with sheer, shiny covers; there was Africa, all fiery red and deep blue, marked by tiny pebbles of embroidery; then the Zen of Asia: pallid dresses, with fluid shapes and drapes.

Throughout there was a sense of the undefined: waves of fabric, jackets looped loosely around the shoulders, and almost every outfit with three or four different materials — say a flowered bodice with drapes at the hips and light mesh material around the knees. Transparency was ever present, including a bare body seen through a sheer curtain of fabric.

Did this ambitious, artistically led collection work? Not always. There were complications right through the collection, mostly because of this chosen path of mixing and melding different fabrics. The one constant was the fabulous quality of workmanship from the Dior ateliers.

Perhaps the intensity and density was to reiterate what Mr. Simons said before the show: “I am not a minimalist.” Although there could have been much more of the few simple evening gowns that looked international and timeless, yet modern.

Yet Mr. Simons, even when he missed the beat, is right to push for something that moves beyond Dior’s Parisian heritage. He is picking up on the cultural and global changes that put Asian clients in key front-row positions in Dior’s show tent.

Old style couture is literally dying: Jean-Louis Scherrer and Gérard Pipart of Nina Ricci both passed away last month. And Dior needs a designer who will look not only at the storied history but also embrace the future — even if Mr. Simons has some way to go before he makes his vision as clear as those images projected on the walls.

Naomi Campbell, the glamour-puss super model, opened and closed the Atelier Versace show, bringing to the catwalk the lacy, racy, high-paced style that belongs to Donatella Versace.

“I want everything perfect: the fabrics, the furs, the finest photographers like Horst and Man Ray,” said Ms. Versace backstage, joshing with Ms. Campbell, both in black lace with peekaboo openings on the body.

She might have added “the perfect body,” for the models sashayed down the catwalk, their skin bared at key points, through a lacy, visible bra, or an open back. There were other gorgeous skins, like the wine red crocodile coat or a sky blue fur, where a curving slit of nakedness created a sensuous path.

That conceal-and-reveal element was abundant. And so was the work with fabrics. The smallest slip seemed dense with adornment, like the scattering of tiny sequins that might trace the open slits.

You have to admire the way that Versace can rebrand itself each season. And the return of the couture line to the runway was an excuse to show some of the bling that had been toned down in the show: the Versace high jewelry collection. And it doesn’t get much higher than that.