If you managed to hijack the iPhones of the style camp this evening, you'd find the same shots in every photo album: electronic wallpaper of blue delphinium, white orchids, yellow mimosa or a mixture of peonies and english roses, occasionally the preening blogger/editor self portrait in the foreground. Christian Dior's Haute Couture show was an uncanny display of fashion world wonder, a perennially jaded audience excited - yes, excited - by the botanical walls of a hotel particulier on avenue d'Iena.
Instagram offered further proof, if whispered surprise wasn't enough (Is that Alber!? The girl from the Hunger Games!?) And still, the real spectacle was to come: the clothes. What can you say about taking a lean black pant suit in a more feminine direction with a fitted jacket and sculpted hip or the perfect long, slim coat with a circle of silver at the waist? For his Dior debut, Raf Simons made it easy to be a lady in the classic sense without forfeiting his certain kind of coolness. There's something alluring about the way a strapless top with a peplum bobbles side to side on a model's hips or a shot of floral embroidery pops atop streamlined corsetry. Other modern homages to Dior's old school came in the form of pastel blossoms, navy and black astrakhan and mink, pale layered feathers, sea urchin spines (rows of black and neon beads) and sliced open glittery polkadots on bar jackets, cigarette pants and tailed dresses streaming over fitted trousers. The requisite dresses were there too, make that times two, as a few looked completely different coming and going. Among the best looks were a sheer cashmere yellow top with high waisted silk skirt and a see through black shirt with a billowing skirt covered in blue blossoms. With fifty-four major looks, it's sort of hard to remember them all. Help me out? Send along your iPhotos, please?
