Haute Couture Spring 2016: Christian Dior

Christian Dior Spring 2016, a conundrum if ever there was one and we are all thinking it. Sans any trace of a virtuoso creative director, Dior moved forward and gave the names Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux as the heads of the empty atelier, who along with a handful of other team members produced a collection that was the quietest and most stripped-back couture confection that we have seen for a number of years at the foremost French fashion house.

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Taking it in inoffensive ready-to-wear directions and travelling the roads most travelled by brands like Prada and Lanvin, on Alber’s off-days, the design team just kept going with what they have, a love of fashionable shapes and a dedication to nodding to Monsieur Dior’s classic clear-cut codes.

These were few and far between though, making this collection significantly un-red carpet ready, only materialising in the latter part of the collection in coat dresses, a nice suit with engorged sleeves and pretty embellishments, and finally gowns with trompe l’oeil off the shoulder fabric effects which were a nice touch.

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The rest of the collection went on graciously and in a very Dior-esque manner, you have to hand that to the creative team.  They have been entrusted with keeping the pace moving with primped and preened high fashion dresses until Dior decides what to do and the creative team did that.

What Dior needs now, one can’t help but think, is a seriously jolt of energy to whip that pace back into the high-powered fashion supernova.

by Liam Feltham

Images courtesy of Dior