Dior built a life-size Parisian style bridge for its Dior Homme show at Paris Fashion Week and it’s just as elegantly extra as it sounds! Last night, a sprinkling of the fashion world’s glitziest followers gathered amongst the grandeur of the Place de la Concorde to revel in the relative normalcy of the first post-pandemic Paris Fashion Week.
Inside the temporary structure, Dior constructed an almost brick-for-brick replica of the elaborately lavish Pont Alexandre III bridge with accompanying 3D gilded bronze horse statues, gold leaf laden nymph statues and an ambience inducing river flowing underfoot courtesy of the enormous plasma screen sprawling the width of the venue. Such jaw-dropping attention to detail culminated in a multi-million dollar set design the likes of which hasn’t been seen in seasons. Particularly considering the whole set was created for only a 15-minute show!
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Beyond the bridge, Dior’s evening of elevated elegance continued as Naomi Campbell looked on from the front row whilst the fashion house revealed its upcoming (and previously unannounced) partnership with German footwear phenom Birkenstock. The understated unveiling of the Dior x Birkenstock Boston Clog & Milano Sandal can be credited to British designer and now creative director of Dior Homme, Kim Jones.
Kim’s bag of tricks appeared bottomless last night as one surprising concept followed another as they sauntered their way across the stage and onto our summer wishlists. The iconically overused Parisian beret was spotted on the runway for the first time in years yet managed to avoid the pitfalls of Parisian pomposity by reimagining the silhouette with the more structured Savile Row style of tailoring native to Mr Jones. Similarly, Kim tweaked and twisted the familiar facade of the Dior women’s ‘Bar Jacket’ to craft a version for men, whilst also breaking away from the muted grey & beige colour palette with the addition of embroidered lily-of-the-valley patterns and sequined patches.
Two things are certain following last nights showing: 1) Dior Homme is in safe hands with Kim Jones at the helm 2) The Paris Fashion Week construction team will still be deconstructing the set by the time the Dior Spring/Summer collection comes out!
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