Dior Says It With Flowers
By SUZY MENKES
PARIS — Before a single sculpted skirt swayed down the runway, or a blue shoe stepped daintily forward, or a model pursed her scarlet lips under a light veil and shook her long, flat hair, the debut Christian Dior couture collection from Raf Simons said it with flowers.
Five grand rooms of a classic Parisian mansion were filled Monday with one million blooms: walls thick with white orchids, yellow mimosa and blue delphiniums — just the colors that would appear on the runway as mid-calf dresses curving at the hips, reinterpretations of the famous shapely “Bar” jacket or rounded, short-and-sweet dresses, cut like a chopped-off ballgown and worn over skinny pants.
“I wanted it to be linked to the codes of Christian Dior — but to make it dynamic, modern, energetic,” Mr. Simons, 44, said after the winter 2012 couture show to explain his own historic/modern approach. The blooms were a homage to Mr. Dior’s “Flower Woman” and passion for gardens.
Roses of every hue lined the central room, where Harvey Weinstein sat flanked by the movie stars Jennifer Lawrence from “The Hunger Games” and Mélanie Laurent from “Inglourious Basterds.” Full front and center, Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, sat with Princess Charlene of Monaco. Marion Cotillard, Dior’s ambassador, was already wearing a dress smothered in flowers.
A lot was riding on the show, even the future of Dior’s haute couture, which had sagged since the abrupt departure of John Galliano in spring 2011. The result of Monday’s presentation was not a triumph, but it was a selection of ideas by a designer who has a rare aptitude: to meld modernity with romance.
Mr. Simons made that statement at the start, sending out two black pantsuits — more of an Yves Saint Laurent symbol — and rounding out the tailoring to make it applicable to Dior.
If his point of reference was the architectural 1950s coat, that was updated as a swishing scarlet overcoat cinched by a taut belt. Ball gowns that came out in their mini-versions or ballet length were traced with floral embroideries, all the colors faint or shaded. There might be a surface of soft feathers. Or a vivid pink dress that turned to show an open back, revealing stride-out cigarette pants.
The designer’s skill was, therefore, in deconstruction. But not that take-it-apart idea from the 1990s, but rather the concept of abstracting just one Dior code at a time. With this show done in just three months, Mr. Simons achieved the barely possible: a respectful bow to the heritage of the house, but making the collection seem appropriate for now.
