Dior travels back in time for couture-infused menswear
Designer Kris Van Assche travelled back in a fashion time machine Saturday while Robert Pattinson explained the importance of clothes for acting roles as he attended Dior Homme’s Paris menswear collection. Here are some highlights of the fourth day of fallwinter shows:
Dior’s tattooed couture
It was an ambitious fusion of two periods for Dior Homme: A sartorial homage to the past that twinned what the house called the “reckless abandon” of youth with the couture of Monsieur Dior’s New Look. Designer Van Assche used references to 1990s tattoo culture in prints and gothic silver jewelry alongside suit variations on the Bar Jacket from the famed 1947 collection that transformed Western fashion. The two-periods theme in the 49 suit-heavy looks was also evident in the age range of the models, who were either very young, or over 40.
The first styles, accessorized with silk neck scarves, featured some beautifully refined single- and doublebreasted suits with narrow waists that curved out in a slight peplum-shape. Suits are the bread-and-butter of the house. “I thought it was a good moment for Dior to go back to its DNA, like really the sharply cut suit,” the 41-year-old Van Assche told The Associated Press. A flash of bright red across a striped T-shirt, meanwhile, turned the dial to the ‘90s with the appearance of a spiked tattoo motif on the shirt undergarment. Continuing that vibe were the baggy jeans, wooly tank tops and sneakers, which were worn by models with messy hair. “It’s looking back with a lot of love and sweet memories to when I myself was a teenager,” Van Assche said. It was an intentionally split aesthetic - and featured some very strong individual pieces. Yet, the result was sometimes incongruous as a whole.
Pattinson says clothes help acting role “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson demonstrated why he’d been chosen as a Dior brand ambassador by extolling the influence of fashion and clothing on the ability of an actor to engage in a role. “Shoes. I always find that when you play a character, if you find the right pair of shoes there’s a trigger that happens inside you,” said the 31-year-old who was dressed head to toe in Dior Homme. “Or to have your pants up here, you feel like an entirely different person.” He added that “you can change your body language and your entire silhouette. It’s all done through the clothing.”
Front row at Dior
Model Bella Hadid joined Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, sporting a chic new beard, alongside “Pearl Harbor” actor Josh Harnett on the Dior Homme front row. A rare face on the Paris fashion scene, Harnett, 39, said he was invited by Dior since he was in town promoting his new movie “Oh Lucy!” It’s a French-Japanese co-production that was screened in the International Critics’ Week section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival. “It’s a comedy and lot of it is a road trip with me and two older Japanese ladies not speaking the same language and having parallel crises,” he said. “I think it’s really funny.”