Clash of the titans
A NEW DIOR and not-so-new Saint Laurent are talk of the town
Anew Dior and new Saint Laurent were the most anticipated shows of the Paris season, thanks to the recent hires at both storied houses.
Raf Simons, who dressed Julianne Moore in that garish yellow gown at the Emmys, has taken Dior to new places with his minimalist vision and bold use of colour. His first outing for the house was at the July couture shows; now, with the spring 2013 ready-to-wear shows he continued to offer a sleek, modern update on the famous Dior New Look, and then some real new looks.
Hedi Slimane at YSL, who controversially dropped the Yves from the house label and moved his atelier to Los Angeles, is known (and revered in some circles) for championing the skinny suit for men. At his first women’s wear show for Saint Laurent, he reprised the codes of the house: the tuxedo, now skinny, caftans and big-bowed sheer blouses, on models with oversized brimmed hats, to mixed reviews.
There was even more buzz than usual about who was seated where, and who did not even get in: Cathy Horyn, the influential critic for the New York Times, for instance, was not invited. A war of words has erupted between Horyn and Slimane. On her blog, she explained that Slimane “objected bitterly’’ to a review she wrote in 2004, in which she attributed a “template of slim tailoring” to Raf Simons. On his Twitter page, Slimane called Horyn a “schoolyard bully,’’ and concludes “she will never get a seat at Saint Laurent, but might get 2 for 1 at Dior.”
Not lost in the clamour of the new names in town were some fine showings from women who continue to create their own new looks: Phoebe Philo at Céline, Clare Waight Keller at Chloé and Stella McCartney. And Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, who, inspired by bees, created buzz.
Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel always puts on a spectacle, this time with giant wind turbines on the runway set and models with full-volume sleeves, dresses, bags or pearls. Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia won praise for their demure frocks, and at Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs checked in with a giant checkerboard yellow and white runway, with four escalators from which models in Damier-like patterns descended and ascended.
Here are some reviews from the critics:
Saint Laurent
Women’s Wear Daily: “Did Slimane offer a new, stunning prescription for edgy chic funnelled through the Saint Laurent lexicon? Not even close. Rather, he filtered sweet homage through an L.A., rock-loving lens (or possibly, a pitch to dress some of Rachel Zoe’s skinniest clients).”
Cathy Horyn, The New York Times: “The collection was a nice but frozen vision of a bohemian chick at the Chateau Marmont. Or in St. Tropez. Mr. Slimane’s clothes lacked a new fashion spirit.”
Lisa Armstrong, Daily Telegraph: “(Slimane) all but disappeared down a self-created hole of pretentiousness. The clothes weren’t bad. It’s just that you’ve already seen them all on Kate Moss, Rachel Zoe and … Steve Nicks.” Dior
Suzy Menkes, IHT: “His Dior show … was a triumph of 21st-century modernism, with all the codes of purity and simplicity challenged.”
Cathy Horyn, NYT: “Mr. Simons played with some of Christian Dior’s famous silhouettes: the A line and the H line, and of course the Bar jacket. But the impression throughout the show was of something sharply new.”
Associated Press: “Freedom was at the heart of … Raf Simons’s debut readyto-wear outing for Christian Dior — a confident show that twinned the essence of the 1950s New Look, with the liberated hemlines of the 1960s.” Chanel
Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times: “The verdict: Light and fun, even if it did blow in a lot of different directions.” Alexander McQueen
Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian: “The queen bee and her hive were the starting points for a collection which was … tempting as honey but with a deadly sting. Organza and lace suits were embroidered with hexagons and honey bees; cocktail dresses in nectar-sweet colours were dotted with appliqué flowers caught between their silk layers.”