Christian Dior AW 2012 Review

Fashion is a business and just because Dior is without a star designer doesn't mean they close up shop until they find one. The show must go on and it's disappointing to see Dior put into this strange design limbo where it is quite obvious that the current head designer Bill Gaytten has been instructed to design pretty, clean, saleable clothes. On the other hand, the clothes were so mind-numbingly boring that they're acting like a palate cleanser for the brand because the memory of John Galliano is something the executives at Dior are intent on erasing. So what better way to do that than have lovely belted tunics over pleated silk skirts? It was a fashion sedative. Hopefully by the end of fashion week Dior will have announced their new designer because collections like this don't belong on a runway in Paris.  

Christian Dior SS 2012 Review

 One-shouldered dresses? Paging Anne Hathaway. Also, stop trying to make Miranda Kerr happen. She's not going to happen. 

Inappropriate use of formica benchtop scraps. I've seen barbecue pit tile mosaics with more personality.

It must be odd for Dior's current head designer Bill Gaytten. He's really just a caretaker for Dior right now until LVMH bosses find a replacement for John Galliano. He had his chance for his debut spring couture show which did not go over well with critics but it didn't matter what he showed because critics would've been harsh with whatever he'd shown. 

For spring Gaytten did a very restrained collection. No drag queen makeup or geometric objects wedged in a model's head. Just clothes really. The show opened with variations on the classic Bar jacket done in a black and white grid pattern and a lovely-enough cream leather. The necklines dipped low and wide which added a point of interest to an otherwise been there done that look. 

Gaytten added some geometric embroideries that looked better suited to a 60's patio. Then there was the eveningwear which was just so blah. I'm surprised. If Gaytten knows he hasn't got the job he should've gone balls-out crazy but I'd say nothing got sent down that runway without a bunch of men in suits with clipboards. Dior is sad. 

Marc Jacobs going to Dior? Phoebe Philo going to Louis Vuitton? Hell freezing over?

The Saddle. Early aughts it bag. 

From Louis Vuitton to Dior. Not exactly a huge stretch for someone like Jacobs. Those are the rumours currently swirling around Paris anyway in what has been months of presumed hand-wringing from Dior execs
taking their sweet time finding a replacement after firing John Galliano for his boozy racial rant at Paris bar La Perle. I can only imagine their leisurely search for a new designer was cut short after their latest couture collection. It was designed by Galliano’s right hand man Bill Gaytten and Susanna Venegas and reviews, including mine were fairly harsh. Execs are probably realising now that taking as much time as needed is seriously hurting the brand. They would be right in thinking that the brand can survive without Galliano but no head designer for three collections? The cracks are starting to show and they need a big designer to patch them up. And Jacobs will do just that. Jacobs is quite an interchangeable designer. You could slot him into any of the top tier luxury brands and he’d do well. Gucci, Chanel, Armani, Saint Laurent. You might not want to imagine him designing for these brands (at YSL? Gasp!) but you know he could do it.

From a fashion perspective it's quite uninteresting to see Jacobs put in at Dior and would be exciting to see them take a risk like they did with Galliano back in the 90’s. From a business perspective, well, Dior haven't had a major It Bag since the Saddle so Jacobs could obviously turn that around with his experience at Louis Vuitton. My other criticism of Marc Jacobs being put in at Dior is that he has never done couture but then I thought, who cares? The execs don’t. They just want hot shoes and bags. Couture isn’t dead but it’s not a bread winner for most couture brands excluding Chanel who manage a neat cut from Lagerfeld’s designs. I think if they hire him most people will just shrug their shoulders and be all whatevs about it.

Dior by Marc Galliano. It's whatevs

So if Jacobs does split for Dior that leaves his post at Vuitton open and rumour has it that Céline head designer Phoebe Philo could go there. I think she’s doing great at Céline and should stay put. With only a few seasons under her belt at Céline, Philo probably doesn’t have a huge emotional attachment to the house but she has total creative control and is able to design and work from London to be with her family, rather than be based in Paris. Maybe the offer of more money may prove tempting if her other needs are met.

Phoebe Jacobs. Don't do it Phoebs (we're like really good friends)

It’s all about direction babes

Babes is my new ironic word du jour but I use it way too often that people think that I’m for real using it. Not
so babes. I like to use it when I’m feeling like a trash bag so if you compare the frequency of it’s use
to how trashy I’m feeling then I must be pure trash baggery 90% of the time.
The spring 2012 shows are soon and I’m excited. In the lead up it’s quite a good time to log on to Style.com or Vogue and look over the winter collections but I feel like I’ve been seeing them for months now. Like the Prada collection which I’m soooo over. If I have to see another shaggy plastic fish scale coat I’ll just.. I don’t know. I’ll probably just cross my arms and make a displeased hrmph sound. I didn’t hate that collection but Prada always get so much magazine coverage that the clothes become grating. And those stupid fucking hats. Infuriating. I dunno, that collection is everywhere at the moment and it doesn't deserve the coverage it’s getting unlike their last spring show which was amazeballs.

Here's my round up of what I'm looking out for at this seasons shows...

Balmain-Olivier Rousteing
Since Christophe Decarnin left the house due to health reasons Olivier Rousteing is now the head designer. I’d like to think that he’ll forge a new direction for the house but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. I mean, where will Emanuelle Alt get her pants from? Certainly not Balenciaga.

Left: Olivier Rousteing. Hnnng. Right: Carine Roitfeld and Emmanuelle Alt in zebra print Balmain skinnys. 

Sophmore Mugler show
As head creative director, Nicola Formichetti admitted he’s not a designer but I have a feeling he believes this gives him an edge and a freedom that trained designers don’t have. There’s no doubt that he’s talented and perhaps he’ll bring Mugler to a new, much younger audience (with a little help from Lady Gaga of course) but what he's doing isn't fashion, nor does it have to be. Mugler is a different animal now and is more of a product than it used to be under the creative direction of Thierry Mugler. Instead of feathered dresses and motorcycle bodices it’s mesh tops and mint flares (which I’ve commented on before. Le meow). Sure I think the new direction is disappointing but at the same time what the house stood for is mostly forgotten and most consumers have little knowledge of what Mugler was like (except for people I guess who went to fashion shows in the 80’s. How amazing right?).

     From this............................................................................to this. Yeah, it's $6000. Get yours now.


Chloé-ClareWaight-Keller
So Chloé threw out Hannah Macgibbon after a few seasons and brought in Clare Waight-Keller. CWK was at Pringle of Scotland which is a nice enough label but Chloé has a cool factor that Pringle doesn’t so presumably CWK jumped at the opportunity. I’m guessing Chloé CEO Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye wants to bring the brand back into the fold because it’s slipped since Phoebe Philo’s departure. Though Macgibbon produced some great stuff it never reached the realms of say, the Paddington bag or the knockout dresses Philo designed.

What's with these black and white studio portraits of designers? 

Dior-Bill Gaytten.
More fun? More clowns? After Gaytten’s Miami movement train wreck I don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m kind of hoping for more train wreckage because it’s highly entertaining. And it throws into sharp relief how talented Galliano is and what he was capable of doing (even when he was apparently high and drunk).
Galliano always talked about how the couture shows informed the ready to wear collections. Certain shapes or colours would spill over from couture to ready to wear. I always got the impression that he used this as a defense for couture. Something to ensure its relevancy. I wonder if Gaytten will do the same.

Tootle. Exactly as I remember it

The Dior Clown Show

Galliano is gone. It's sad. People who loved his romantic vision for Dior now have to deal with the fact that it is gone and never coming back. It's kinda like if you have a favourite restaurant and suddenly it's under new management with a new menu. Same name, completely different experience. And people hate change.

I fell in love with Galliano's work in the early 2000's when he started doing epic overblown collections. The trailer trash collection, the Peking opera collection or the rave collection with the ghetto blaster handbags. These are the collections that made such a huge impression on me. Of course it got to a point where the dresses were pouring out onto the runway like fashion slime, the models trudging along with hyper real cartoon drag queen kabuki makeup before it had to change. So for the past few years the collections have become less dramatic in every sense. The silhouettes were roped in, the make up was tamed and the clothes less experimental. And that's when things got boring. At the end of each collection Galliano would talk about the house heritage, the bar jacket blah blah blah. The clothes looked like they belonged in the archives from the 40's and 50's. I have a feeling that this wasn't entirely Galliano's choice and that executives wanted to reposition the brand from wild French bitch to demure mademoiselle. 

Since Galliano's departure, Dior executives have said they'll take as long as they need to before choosing the new head designer. So in the mean time they've got studio director Bill Gaytten and first assistant Susanna Venegas filling in. 

According to Gaytten he wanted to do something more modern which begs the question why look back at past collections to achieve this? The only thing that I could pin to his statement was perhaps the fact that the inspiration for the collection was architecture. To my memory (and correct me if I'm wrong) Galliano never chose architecture as a theme or inspiration for a collection. He was always inspired by culture, native costumes, noted figures, uniforms. Architecture? Not that I can recall. 

OLD DIOR

Early 2000's

THEN...

This is from Spring 2008. I know right? 

The collection wasn't terrible but I didn't find it cohesive. That's what got me the most. The first 18 looks were like early 00's Dior. I think Cathy Horyn from the New York Times described the hats as dumb but I liked them. There were pastel colours and stripes inspired by the Memphis movement of the 80's. They were fun and mostly cool. But then the collection changed into the Florida queen movement of the 60's. And I don't mean that in a Project Runway kinda comment, you know, like whoa what a hot mess. No, the models really looked like queens. 

Gasp

So after the ladies sauntered out, worked the pole and took some front row guests to the champagne room for a private dance the show ended with a series of big, overblown gowns that lacked finesse. They looked lumpy and ill-fitting. 

I don't get it. Maybe Mr Gaytten has drug problems too? 

I think I read on someone's blog (I can't remember. Maybe it was a comment on someones blog?) that perhaps people were expecting a miracle like Sarah Burton at McQueen but it didn't materialize. I think that execs played a heavy hand in this collection. I have a feeling they told Gaytten to make the collection fun and light-hearted. If they didn't and this was all his own doing then surely it will also be his unravelling.