The normal craze continues. Boring reigns supreme. Goodbye decadence, surprise, theatre humour and twists. Hello blue jeans, plain suits, striped knits, jean jackets. Open your closet and you'll have most these pieces already, but aren't we all creatures of habit who enjoy purchasing the same thing again and again, perpetually shopping in the hope of finding a perfect version of something we already have? Uniform dressing, they call it. That mentality is what will sell this Dior collection - a tribute to safety by Kris Van Assche.
Van Assche was proud of his commitment to the predictable and expected. On our seats at the show was a quote in the handwriting of Christian Dior himself, 'Traditions have to be maintained. In troubled times like ours, we must maintain these traditions, which are our luxury and the flower of our civilisation.' Van Assche seemed to have interpreted that to mean when life is uncertain, go commercial and easy as can be. Such was his attachment to this ethos he'd furnished several pieces with that quote, scribbled in the writing of Mr Dior on collars and shirts. That rushed handwriting does smack of a certain whimsy and freedom, which was replicated in the child-like squiggled roses and school boy stripes that adorned other pieces.
Indeed, the whole collection had almost a childlike simplicity, from those primary hues to the sweet rolled up baby blue denims. As a far as clothes go, these were perfectly pleasing. But when you think about it, that sentence aside, Mr Dior wasn't about conforming. He may have had a strong business mind, but he was an innovator through and through. So while this collection was covered in his words, it didn't really have the true Christian Dior handwriting on it.
