Sixty years ago, the "backstage" experience at Christian Dior would have been a high point of decorum, refinement and, possibly, the occasional squeal. For the updated version, imagine Lady Gaga, Brangelina and Jesus converging on the red carpet at the same time. Scrum does not do the melee after the Dior show justice.
At the centre of it was Raf Simons, Dior's new creative director and the man charged with rebuilding what David Cameron would call a "broken" brand. Since Galliano-gate 18 months ago, Dior's image has been subjected to a battering.
Simons, who previously worked at the much smaller Jil Sander label, had an interesting challenge: erase this megalithic brand's annus horribilis, keep the good bits, exhume its peerless archives, modernise them; fuse wearable with traffic-stopping; sexy with classy and try and keep the show under 15 minutes long.
He seems to relish challenges. Back in July he produced a couture collection just six weeks after he arrived at the house. Some of the ideas - including strapless sheaths worn over slim trousers - reappeared today, honed and polished. But there was much more: the famous peplumed Bar jacket worn as a dress; New Look skirts slimmed down, lengthend to the ankle and doused with metallic roses, inspired by Christian Dior's flower gardens and worn with stretch tops taken from swimwear; short-sleeved silk T-shirt dresses with asymmetric trains, some veiled with tulle tunics and a line satin dresses, again a nod to 60s Dior. There was plenty of lightness and movement, courtesy of the organza layers, sometimes as many as six in a single dress, and the bias cut pleats which featured on peplumed jackets and mini skirts were inspired by Christian DIor's archictural pleating from the 1950s.
Simons had clearly dug deep not just into Christian Dior's psyche but Galliano's. The golden goose Lady Dior bag from Galliano's reign was there, the flashy metal hardware reworked in same-colour plastic. The crystal-studded eye make-up was also present, no longer clown-like but, implausible as it sounds, futuristically chic. The number of techno fabrics also helped this collection feel wholly contemporary. The fit of the clothes, a minor issue in his first couture collection, was perfect - and that goes for all 53 looks. Safe to say he and Dior's atelier of 120 plus seamstresses have learned to speak each other's technical language.
Yet Simons is not just an accomplished technician who can explain his thought processes in methodically lucid terms, but a romantic and a modernist. "I wanted this collection to be about sex, freedom, movement, sensuality, minimalism, " he said after the show and the scrum.
"People think Christian Dior was about constriction and technically, with the New Look's corseting, it was. But in a psychological sense it was about liberating women, allowing them to be romantic again and to fantasise about their image. The New Look was nostalgic but it was also absolutely contemporary in relating to how women wanted to feel after the war".
As for importing minimalism to Dior, a brand recently known for maximum excess, he said "I love it, of course I do. I remember it from 1996, with Jil Sander and Helmut Lang. That's when I set up my own business. But if you do minimalism now - and it seems to be having a big moment - it has to be fun and sensuous, not just about a white shirt".
It was fun and sensuous and also elegant and extremely desirable. A year ago everyone said that resurrecting Dior was an impossible task. Now it looks immenently feasible. That was Simons' biggest achievement today. His next was to try and find his parents who were over from Antwerp to see their son take Paris by storm.
BY LISA ARMSTRONG
