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UnTotal Look

>> Firstly, I apologise if the blog comes off looking like there's been a deliberate Dior takeover this week.  Nothing sinister I can assure you.  I had those haute couture pictures sitting on the desktop for a while and spring is finally in bloom so up they went.  Next Saturday, I'm also very fortunate to be attending the Dior Cruise show in Monaco and they very kindly offered out pieces from their S/S 13 collection to wear for the occasion - something that I'd normally object to in most instances (I inexplicably can't shake that cheeseball feeling of wearing clothes by the designer of the show you're attending) but I felt so much love for that first Raf Simons for Dior ready-to-wear collection that it would have been churlish to say no.  The sun will be out.  The heady optimism of that graphically precise collection will suit the climate.  Even if I don't necessarily do the clothes justice.  

What I do object to though is the idea of the prescribed total look.  Head-to-toe brand adulation.  Straight forward runway ensemble replication, from the clothes to the shoes to the bag.  I'm waiting for Business of Fashion or the like, to do some sort of exposé on the number of editorials in magazines that have to comply with brands' imposing rules on shooting total looks - as in everything on one page belonging to one brand - without any other brands mixed in, so that the obligations of advertiser credits are fully met.  It's something that strikes me as a sad state of affairs when you see limitations being imposed on talented stylists.  Without pointing fingers at specific brands (and it has to be said, different rules apply at different publications), it's a restriction that has become increasingly militant in print media in recent years.  

It's a bit more of a wild wild West here in blogland where shoots aren't formal and advertiser credits aren't in existence (yet).  It could be that Dior may not want their clothes polluted with my shadypairings but what strikes me as interesting with Raf Simons' new verve for Dior, is the mixability potential of the clothes and so with a few of the options that they sent over on loan, I had a jolly time playing around with them.  The colours of this particular collection almost beg for extra layers and contrasts to be thrown in with them.  Whilst Dior ready-to-wear is still largely only available from Dior's own boutiques, its repositioning with its wholesale business at multi-brand boutiques means that it sheds an entirely different light on the brand.  Both 10 Corso Como in Milan and colette in Paris hosted pop-up shop events to fete the Dior S/S 13 collection, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe Dior ready-to-wear has rarely ever had an ecommerce presence (there are currently S/S 13 pieces available on colette) - that in itself already makes Dior feel more tangible (note, I say tangible, not accessbible - the prices are WELL up there).  That desire to mix the clothes in amongst a new generation of customers will only increase.  Why shouldn't the clothes sit next to the likes of Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha and even Simons' old employer Jil Sander?  Hell, throw some Nike, Topshop and Whistles in there whilst we're at it.           

Therefore come next week at the Dior Cruise show, it's highly unlikely that I'll look like a Dior goody-two-shoes, perked and poised with head-to-toe Dior.  I ain't ever gonna be no show-pony.  Despite the idea of a total look feeling like a dated power-dressing concept, leftover from the 1980s or early 90s, it seems we've not quite moved passed it, especially when there are a growing number of show ponies (celebrities, actresses from China etc) still very much eager to don a total look and clothes are lent out to stylists with strict conditions.  That idea just doesn't reflect the way we actually dress and how our wardrobes are composed in reality.  I'll be curious to see whether total look sensibility seeps into fashion blog culture just as blogs increasingly adopt practises of print media.  My wardrobe sensibility will be fighting it with persistence though if it does because frankly, where's the fun in head-to-toe anything?

Dior S/S 13 lace and mesh strapless top worn with Jonathan Saunders geometric top, Miu Miu skirt, Karen Walker sunglasses, Christopher Kane clutch and Six London shoes

Dior S/S 13 silk embroidered dress worn with Whistles denim and mohair knit worn as a skirt, & Other Stories neoprene visor and Christopher Kane brocade sandals

Dior S/S 13 knit dress worn with Simone Rocha lace skirt, J Brand x Christopher Kane jacket, Nike Flyknit trainers

Garden of Growth

"A passion for flowers inherited from my mother meant that I was at my happiest among plants and flower-beds.  My predilection influenced even my reading and, apart from those few books which made their mark on my whole childhood, my chief delight was to learn by heart the names and descriptions of flowers in the coloured catalogues of the firm of Vilmorin and Andrieu."

"In December 1946, as a result of the war and uniforms, women still looked and dressed like Amazons.  But I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts."   

"The new collection is like the arrival of spring in the studio.  During the off season, it is as white, empty, and gloomy as a laboratory; now the pieces of material are like young shoots which ripen into a thousand flowery patterns."  

 Christian Dior, taken from Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior 

Photographs of Christian Dior's childhood home and rose gardens from Dior Mag

When I attended the Christian Dior couture show back in January, Raf Simon's second haute couture collection for the house since his appointment, I couldn't quite contemplate the notion of a blooming flower.  The scene in the Tuileries Garden was frozen and still.  Even the photo frenzy, or the so-called "circus" outside of the Dior show venue was muted as snow was steadily falling down, blanketing Paris in white.  With London's late spring coming now fully in bloom (I've verified this by taking a walk around well-manicured Highbury, which is my closest indication of whether spring has sprung...), I can dig up these pictures from frozen January and look at Simons' collection, straight-forwardly and directly inspired by Monsieur Dior's love of gardening and flora, with a newly-blossomed appreciation.

Total disclosure, this was in fact my first ever Christian Dior haute couture show experience.  I'm trying to hold back the gushing sentiment, because it's not exactly a helpful context to have me going "!!!I LOVEEEEE EVERYTHING!!!" with no extensive experience of going to haute couture shows but it's also hard to be all po-faced and measured in opinion, when I was in fact tingling before, during and after the show.  Simons explained it all with one word though - garden.  It captures everything that this collection was about - growth in the context of the natural plant world, growth in terms of Simons' himself "growing" into his new role as a haute couture designer at the helm of an incredible atelier, reflections of the symbolic season of spring, which is attached to new beginnings, a process that comes full circle and then of course, references to Monsieur Dior's "flower" silhouettes and his own personal love for the nurturing and tending of a garden.  Hence, why this post begins with some quotes from Dior's autobiography, a tome that Simons also read.  There's almost a deliberatlye naive and literal approach to the simplistic symbolism and metaphors in this haute couture - something that anybody can get their head around.  It's certainly in stark contrast to Simon's latest ready to wear collection, which was a harder nut to crack concept-wise - a reaction on Simons' part perhaps as he now begins to properly get his teeth into the maison.

Actually, let's skip all talk of metaphor and concept shall we?  It's literally as simple as me getting a whiff of blooming stocks and then thinking that any piece from this bountiful collection would be the absolute perfect accompanying garment.  Dream on, you say - but that I suppose is the tide of change that Simons has bought about at Dior.  His mode of haute couture feels tangible.  The silk organza pansy petals on a bustier or spider-like splays of bead embroidery don't feel like they should be locked away behind glass or confined on models.  That's down to the silhouettes, that whilst sweeping and voluminous in some instances (and honestly - I can't really go down the dreamer path with haute couture when there AREN'T super dramatic and sweeping moments) are controlled and staccato in the majority of the collection.  The final look of an off-white silk jacket, with the sleeves rolled up, paired with an embroidered gown trailing the floor, with pockets for the hands, is an emphatic summation of marrying an up-in-the-clouds dream with something closer back down on Earth.  What I was particularly entranced by was Simons' judgement of colour, something akin to this memorable passage of text from Liza Dalby's The Tale of Murasaki.  Pale, pastel, jewel, bright, muted and black - all shades are present but are married up beautifully, especially in the layered double-skirted dresses and cropped separate tops and also in the ballooning strapless gowns, laden and lavish with embroidery.  Just merely looking at the clusters of buds, petals, stems and leaves, made up of bead, sequin and minute pieces of silk formations, expertly embroidered by the Maison Vermont (Dior, like Chanel, has also been investing in savoir-faire with their acquisition of this Parisian embroidery workshop), is enough to make your eyeballs pop out.  And that's without seeing any of this up close.    

We say fashion is now seasonless.  We say the way fashion is shown is out of sync with the actual climate.  That may be the case but that's not to take anything away from the very notion of spring itself and looking back on this collection only makes me want to indulge in my own floral habits, even more so. I am one of those weirdos that goes all misty-eyed when I see my first daffodil or a crocus poking up in the ground.  Cherry blossoms falling against a backdrop of blue sky will always make my heart swell.  I always take longer routes when walking through London just so that I can look at idyllic posho houses with lilac hydrangeas running up the walls.  These are just a few of my flower fancies.  Those with far deeper pockets that I have, can do one better and go forth and embrace spring in their attire, with this Dior haute couture collection by Simons.    

 

Pip Pop Magic Ride Relived

>> It's rare that I'd ever post about the same collection twice within a month but my love for Romance was Born's Mushroom Magic collection has proved enduring, fed by a neverending trail of inspiring imagery that definitely augments my own magic mushroom ride experience of the show, where creative lighting meant my own photographs were a little on the haphazard/shady side.  Sydney-based photographer Dan Boud comes to the rescue though with his extensive backstage photography portfolio of the show, where the snap, crackle and pop of the clothes, with all its masterful candy-hued embellishment can really be seen properly and where you can also relive the show atmospherics of Val Garland's extraordinary make-up and Alan White's mushroom wigs.  Interspersed amongst this colourful cacophony are additional up-close images of Brisbane-based artist Pip & Pop aka Tanya Schultz' sugar sculpture set, which she created for the show out of 500kg of sugar and a whole host of other magical kitsch ingredients.  Fortunately for the purposes of feeding my brain, Romance was Born's show isn't a one-night-only affair.  It lives on.  And having just received a lookbook with a tasty personal order form attached to it, I'm deciding whether a ushroom Day Coat", a "Miss Belle Dress" or a "Crescent Crop Top" are things that will radically amplify my wardrobe, so that hopefully the magic mushroom ride continues on.      

Romance was Born backstage photography and collage photography by Dan Boud, Photography of Pip and Pop set by Tanya Schultz for Dazed Digital