Dazed – 24 juin 2017<\/p>\n
This year, Belgian designer Kris Van Assche celebrates a decade at the helm of Dior Homme. Even he can’t quite believe it’s been that long \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s gone really quickly!\u201d he exclaims from his atelier at 3 Rue de Marignan, the afternoon before his SS18 show. Originally arriving at the house in 2000 with Hedi Slimane (who he assisted at Yves Saint Laurent), he left to start his own independent label in 2004. When Slimane exited three years later he returned, dividing his week between the two brands until 2015, when he decided to focus on Dior full time. \u201cIt became super exciting for me when I had to quit my own label. It really allowed for me to put much more of myself here,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of reinvented my role now, so it\u2019s a whole new adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n
That new adventure hasn\u2019t exactly been low profile, thanks to a list of headline-making campaign stars. As well as younger creative talents including A$AP Rocky, The xx\u2019s Oliver Sim and Manchester By The Sea actor Lucas Hedges, there was Larry Clark, Boy George, and most recently Depeche Mode\u2019s Dave Gahan, revealed only last week. While the casting perfectly brings together both the cult and current, what\u2019s perhaps been most brilliant is the unexpected nature of the protagonists: even Van Assche thought it would \u201cfor sure be a no\u201d from the 74-year-old Clark, best known for seminal 1995 film Kids, and photobooks like Tulsa and Teenage Lust. \u201cI\u2019ve been very lucky,\u201d admits the designer happily. Clark even made a short film for the house, and despite their wildly different backgrounds, each campaign star has felt unshakably authentic as a figurehead; they’ve been chosen out of a genuine respect for their work as opposed an attempt to tap into a trend or hit up the latest social media influencer.<\/p>\n
Recent collections have been similarly high voltage, blending dark but impeccable tailoring with a subcultural and street edge. There was last season\u2019s \u2018HarDior\u2019 collection, which saw a hardcore techno raver influence that had hints of Belgium\u2019s gabber music fans. Then there was the punkish, gothic SS17 collection, which featured bondage straps, skull motifs, and Frankenstein-like red stitching. The season before that, 80s New Wave and 90s skaters were a key reference point, and models wore their hair in emo fringes. To top it all off, their fingernails were painted with black polish. \u201cI am interested in a synthesis of generations and filtering subcultures through my own lens to tell a new story,\u201d Van Assche has said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became super exciting for me when I had to quit my own label. It really allowed for me to put much more of myself here\u201d \u2013 Kris Van Assche<\/p>\n
His SS18 show yesterday, was another exploration of youth culture through the lens of Dior\u2019s longstanding heritage, as models marched out onto a turf runway to a jarring mix which veered between outsider anthems like Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep\u201d, REM\u2019s \u201cLosing My Religion\u201d and Depeche Mode\u2019s \u201cEnjoy the Silence\u201d. Above them hung black streams of tinsel, which looked like the tape you’d find coiled in cassettes.<\/p>\n
The collection was divided into two parts \u2013 first up was a desire to \u201cre-think and re-work the DNA of the brand\u201d: the black suit and the white shirt. \u201cHow can we re-make that and deconstruct it for the future?\u201d was the question Van Assche posed. The answer was to approach the suit in what he called a \u201cradical\u201d new way: the first silhouettes were a menswear take on Christian Dior\u2019s classic Bar silhouette for women while the backs of jackets were cut away to reveal bondage-like straps which bisected the t-shirts beneath. Some pieces saw sleeves chopped off entirely to become scarves wrapped around the neck, and trousers were blown up into raver-wide, JNCO-like proportions, or else replaced by super short shorts. In a direct tribute to the house, the address of the Rue de Marignan atelier appeared prominently, featuring on bags, tops, shirts, pins and more.<\/p>\n
But there was also an ode to American adolescence \u2013 with varsity jackets and prints, a heavy sportswear theme, and what Van Assche said was a tribute to the all American prom night \u2013 when young men might put on their first suit. \u201cFor me it\u2019s just youth culture, street culture,\u201d he noted of the Stateside references \u2013 which have also been a famous source of inspiration for fellow Belgian, Raf Simons. \u201cWhen I was 15 we all looked at America for that. Some of those memories come back\u2026 but now that street culture is everywhere, it’s worldwide.\u201d One phrase came splashed across multiple pieces: \u201cLATE NIGHT SUMMER\u201d. \u201cI really wanted to evoke when you get to stay out the whole night for the first time,\u201d he says. \u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit \u2013 having beers, your first boyfriend or girlfriend, that idea of becoming aware that the way you dress is going to help you socialise and exist, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trainers were matched with every look \u2013 like when teenage boys kick off their school shoes as soon as the bell rings and put on their freshest pair of sneakers. There was also a collaboration with artist Francois Bard, whose work depicts 21st century scenes \u2013 men in caps, trainers and hoodies \u2013 in fine art oil paintings. Similar to Van Assche\u2019s own work, his practice mixes the contemporary and street with elevated, precisely honed techniques. The designer even has some of Bard\u2019s pieces at home. \u201cI think he has a very traditional way of portraying something very modern, so I very much like his work,\u201d he praises. Beneath it all was an exploration of the line between boyishness and manhood, those moments young men start to discover their style, begin to dress with intent: \u201cThe idea of these guys at college\u2026 how do they enter into this process of seduction or being more sexy? By cutting off their sleeves, making their own necklaces\u2026 but with little skulls because of course they\u2019re still tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some designers might be getting restless after such a long time, Van Assche seems perfectly content. The rest of the industry, it should be noted, appears to be in a near-constant state of flux, with new moves announced regularly and one designer \u2013 Justin O\u2019Shea, hired at Brioni \u2013 only lasting a single season in his new job. \u201cIt feels like I\u2019m growing into a new chapter, it doesn\u2019t really feel like I\u2019ve been doing the same thing for 10 years,\u201d Van Assche says. He cites the decision to shake up the campaign team and start working with David Sims as an example \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m reinventing it because I want to change it on a high. I don\u2019t want to get into a comfort zone.\u201d That’s the risk of working in a big house, he admits: \u201cYou know the expectations, you know what will sell, what people will like. But in the end I really realised with my own label \u2013 I\u2019m not having enough fun with this. So I had to clean everything out and I started having more fun here.\u201d It’s certainly paying off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dazed – 24 juin 2017 Kris…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fs-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredericsanchez.com\/fredericsanchez\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}