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When I first took acknowledge of the new Dior Homme SS 2011 name, I have to say that I had some difficulties to understand what could be the true meaning of "Lessness" especially into a fashion designer mind...
I envied the native english language men like most of you here!... Lucky men, I thought, you already got the key even before I could find a right suitable translation...especially when "Lessness" doesn't even exist as a word into my dictionary!
Of course, I understood "less" and "ness" at the end of a word but put together there was like a kind of abstraction to me...
Was it "nothing" or even "less than nothing", which to tell the truth is a strange concept for a fashion
summer collection?!... I had an ironic strange vision in my mind:
Were the models going to run nude on the stage ?...
I finally thought I was certainly wrong in this idea as Dior Homme makes money in selling clothes, so nudity was for sure not the right clue!
I, then, wondered if "Lessness" could be in relation with
the "Short Stories" by Samuel Beckett when the author first wrote in French, then changed the sentences words display into a random way before translating in English...?...Maybe...
Whatever I am having some difficulties again to imagine without a high sense of humor what could be the result on a fashion collection...
* * *
Still digging into my brain, my reflection led me to the Halle Freyssinet: Built in 1927 from concrete, iron and glass, this used to be an industrial place linked to railway tracks....Until it was recently renewed for all kind of events like, by instance, fashion shows...Kriss choosing an ancient industrial place for the new collection was maybe a clue as well... I couldn't help myself to think that many of the alternative fashion brands like Carol Christian Poell, Julius, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Julius, Rick Owens, etc...chose also, in their time, to show in industrial places...Saturday, close to 3PM, 30° outside, Paris is under heavy sun.
Two railway tracks enter into the "Halle" were the "Tout Paris" is slowly dying of overheat, 35° inside, no air...the two railways tracks shamefully die into the "nothingness", at the bottom of the all white show stage...From the carpet, up to the curtains, everything is draped in white...Reminds me the minimal piece of white fabric used for the invitation:
"Lessness / DIOR HOMME".
...MINIMAL...
As an immutable ritual, the huge crowd of invited guests and VIPs, sat over the white stepped rows of seats all around the immaculate stage, waits for Karl Lagerfeld to be the last one to make his solemn entrance with his court…
Suddenly coming as a huge quake from the bowels of the Earth, the ground trembles under the sound of an Asian tribal big drum, the white bluish floods enlighten through the central curtains circle, the drums intone the first rhythm of the soundtrack from Kar Wei Wong's 2046...a strong and throbbing rhythm.
A sliding spectrum appears a short time through the light, then a second ephemeral shadow slides around, then a walking silhouette loomed up out of the white evanescence , soon followed by a second one, then a third one...
The music is hypnotic...This is now like an endless decimated column of black figures, turning around, into the moon washed limbs of the white curtains spiral at the very heart of the stage,
appearing, vanishing alternately, like searching for an issue...when at the attack of the strings into the music the first black warrior is delivered out of the limbs..
The faces are closed, footsteps determined, apace ...those shaped figures look like an ascetic army of the last defenders of the faith...
This metaphor, here, to explain how I personally felt the setting… but not only myself from what we discussed later on with other people after the show: This is now the ultimate aim from Kriss to concentrate only on the essential: the only shape, the purest design, the Couture!
Relieved, show after show,-of the eternal old and ancient clichés of Dior fashion codes, -of the Dior management obligations, -of the severe (and unfair) critics from the specialized press he had to face at his first beginnings when he replaced Hedi Slimane at the head of Dior Creation department,
-of Hedi’s fans expectations,
-of Dior House clients habits,
-of being only a poor continuation,
Kriss van Assche feels, now, totally free.
Collection after collection, he has succeeded to drive away all the valuable reserves about his potentiality, about his ability to become a leader into fashion world.
Year after year, he imposed his own style up to become the new reference.
If one has to be even more convinced of his new status, it is easy to look at the audience today, at the large number of present VIPs, at the numerous international buyers, at the press people and photographs, at Dior House investment into an expensive show. He patiently won the endless confidence of all the people here. Kriss has now become the new idol of fashion in Paris since he ranked N°1 for best collection of the year with Dior Homme last winter collection and N°5 under his own label at the same time.
But for those who know the Designer, as almost a shy and interiorized person, discrete and upright, it is more than obvious that this man will never be able to satisfy himself of what he can only consider as a step, an instant snapshot into a whole continuous artistic process. He is conscious enough to know he has kind of a fight to lead, a crusade to carry on as a very personal challenge but overall for the values he trust in:
DESIGN, FASHION, COUTURE.
Kriss totally accepts as his own this crusade for coming back to the roots of Couture, in a simple, innovative, strong, pure and very personal style. But coming back to roots doesn't mean regression, this is exactly the opposite. It means to recenter fashion on its main cultural and historical basis to go further in modernism.
So, “Lessness” is nowadays most ultimate development into Kriss's creative process.
Each new collection, coming up on stage for its very first exposure, is each time a kind of birth. This is the strung-up moment when after a long gestation of creative and handcrafting process into the darkness of the fashion house ateliers, all the emotional expectations of the artist come to light.
Here, the central moon washed limbs at the very heart of the stage are in fact like an uterus of light delivering Kriss's creation.
This is the instant of all dangers. The artist is now totally exposed. The purpose has to be sharp and strong, cohesive and of clear direction. The language has to be assertive and convincing, carrying on easy identifying codes.
And this is precisely what the “Lessness” catwalk and collection offer to the audience:
Nothing is extravagant, Everything is mainly black.
Nothing is a hazard, Everything is determined.
Nothing is ease, Everything is a challenge.
Nothing is redundant, Everything focused on the Essential.
Nothing falls into decorative, Everything is restrained into Minimalism.
The art direction is clear and incisive, style is innovative and resolutely contemporary, avant-gardist one could say. Those are undoubtedly the active ingredient of a new inescapable success.
Together the lines are pure, the edges are rough, the angles tense, the curves soft but always to better shape the design. There is a permanent will to concentrate on clean line.
Fabrics are fluid, often austere, never showy but of extreme quality.
Movement is used to emphasize even more the cut just like butterflies taking advantage of flight to better reveal the beauty of their perfect shape.
Movement is obviously part of the design.
There is no lining.
For anyone who knows a bit about Couture, it is well known that' it is of the greatest difficulty to tailor, especially jackets and coats, without the use of lining.Lining is giving weight to the fabrics, hide the way the different parts are sewn together and especially the inside invisible stitching which give tense and direction to the outside fabrics, lining also helps the cloth to slide over the body, to get a pleasant contact to the skin.
There are now three collections (SS2010, AW2010, SS2011) that Kriss has made his signature to get rid of the lining, giving so an incredible lightness to his clothes, giving himself a new freedom.
What could the lining use here when the will is to concentrate on the Essential?
What could be the interest of a lining, whatever almost always hidden in fashion use, when achieving the aim to disclose the truth.
There is no lie into Kriss’s work.
Fabric dresses the body, I should say the anatomy, never hurts it, never fight against it but, more important, better than simply following the movement,
IS THE MOVEMENT ITSELF !
So, model after model, the Kiss’s ascetic army is on the march. As said previously, there is no place for extravagance. All is based on tailoring, black is the unique color for the biggest part of the show, there is no need of other colors to draw the silhouettes.
When the main purpose will be established for well only some sand beige , ash gray and blue colors will then be sparingly introduced.
It is so surprising to see such a perfect shaping; it is just like if we are looking to exact pencil drawings from the hand of Kriss, it's so graphic! And I would add so evident, so obvious, just like if any line, any edge, any stitching is just where it can only be!
Sometimes, at the most, a white stitching or a white line can be seen on garments. But these are never decoration. They are direction. They are a distinctive sign, a directive sparkle of light through the shadow to emphasize once a construction line, once a movement, or furthermore an anatomic transition but never, a selfish catcher of the eyes.
I never personally thought they were bad, far from me this idea, I loved quite a lot pieces but there was maybe as a lack of real strong personal direction, of personal decision, as an hesitation to a definitive affirmation .
But the reality seems to have a more valuable explanation:There was, of course, an obvious need by the Dior House management to insure kinda continuity after Hedi Slimane departure, making so, an heavy pressure on Kriss van Assche’s shoulders.
At the same time, Kriss could not be only a Hedi’s clone. He already had the will to affirm his own originality. In consequence, in the first collections by Kriss we had a curious mix between continuity, obligations and personal affirmation which could not allow the collections to be as strong as they could have been. Each time beautiful, of course, but just a little step under what they could have reached if the codes would have been authorized to be broken for well, straight from the very beginning of the new collaboration. But the changes were already in march, but maybe unfortunately still with an homeopathic dosage…
For me, in my own opinion, Hedi was more a genius re-interpreter than a true creator and there is absolutely nothing of pejorative in it. The best proof, and I am the first to agree, and nobody can contest it today, is that Hedi is the one who changed the men fashion in the early 2000.
What I mean is that as a photograph that he is, he was the one who translated the street and Rock’n Roll codes and attitude into fashion. Kriss was his first assistant, and of course at this point could not be otherwise than being under Hedi’s influence.
Hedi created his best collections early when he entered as the new Dior designer. This was the time when he surprised everybody into fashion world with its more creative collections for Dior Homme as “Follow me”, “Luster”, “Strip”, “VOTC”: narrow silhouettes, slim shaping, precise tailoring, architectural and slightly subversive style expressed on juvenile models, innovative process on high quality fabrics, etc…
What was basically new was to make those the new fashion codes…codes that were in fact not new on the Rock’n Roll scene but new in fashion…that is why I previously wrote he was for me more a genius re-interpreter....
But whatever he did forge the Dior Homme image that many people still have in mind even yet today.
-To be perfectly honest, in the meantime, I have to moderate my sentiments with the incredible dreamlike “Luster” collection and show where Hedi created a true phantasmagorical universe of unbelievable creation, never seen before and which will ever keep in contemporary fashion history...-
The AW03 "LUSTER" Ad. Campaign by Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme
When Hedi left in 2007 after several other collections which, in my own opinion, never reached again the high level of his first collections, Kriss van Assche was offered by Dior management to become the director of the creation for Dior Homme. Hedi had so much left his print on Dior Homme style that he had no other choice than to be patient enough before being able his turn to impose in own style on the brand.
SS08 Kriss van Assche first collection for Dior Homme
The first Opus by Kriss for Dior Homme was not really a "true" collection. Hurried by the little time he had since he was nominated at the head of the creation department, only a "capsule" collection was designed and no defile could be scheduled in time.
The Ad. campaign already shows a new and personal direction for Dior Homme.
Style is deliberately based on both a very elegant and romantic classicism allied to the very "couture" tradition of the Fashion House, in the spirit of Christian Dior.
Maybe the biggest difference between Hedi and Kriss is that Kriss was much more a Tailor, a true Couture expert than Hedi was. I don’t mean at all he was a better designer, that’s only that Kriss had a better knowledge of handcraft, of traditional tailoring, a larger background in tailoring and fashion techniques and savoir-faire.
I just want to explain, therefore, that their backgrounds are finally totally different…
They are both accomplished artists interested and expressing themselves through many different medias, they have been both creative directors in fashion houses but their approaches, their personalities are so different that their creative expressions can only be different.
And anybody can see it as soon as Kriss issues its very first true collection “Lumière du Nord” for Dior Homme: The tailoring is more sophisticated, the fabrics are more immediately sumptuous…
The AW08 "LUMIERE DU NORD" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme
At the same time he begins to include non slim patterns, especially into trousers but they keep mixed with what has become now traditional slim Dior lines…
So, it makes the original Dior Homme fans a bit disoriented and disappointed…and perhaps neither makes Kriss really happy. But the commercial response is good and Dior can keep its confidence in Kriss as the art director of the fashion house. Whatever they were conscious enough from the beginning that Kriss task was a tough challenge to come after Hedi.
The following collection SS2009 can then be considered as the first turn into Kriss artistic expression, which in fact neither means that this summer collection really brings a change into the curious first “hybrid” collections but it only means that after this collection nothing will be like before.What happened?
This is maybe the Dior Homme collection which received the worst critics. Kriss broke again some of the Dior Homme codes, bringing up some crazy unusual colors in Dior universe: bright gold, blue, pink...jewels on garments, rich embroideries, etc… !
The SS09 "BLOW" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme
This is this one summer collection which really gave “Wings” to Kriss to fly free - which is quite funny because this SS2009 collection “Blow” is often misnamed “Wings” by many people! Certainly because of the bugs, butterflies wings ornaments on many pieces of the collection -.
This also the time where all the craziest rumors inflate about Kriss going to be soon replaced by Gareth Pugh at the head of Dior creative department!
Far from this, the reality is that Dior Homme never sold so much and Dior management renews its total confidence in Kriss and nothing will be the same from now! Kriss dared and nothing bad happened!
Breaking the ancient codes was breaking the chains! He can go further now.
The AW09 "ANGLES" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme
Kriss wins even more in confidence and feels time has come now: he feels no more obligations to assume the Dior codes of the past, he has no pressure over him and gets a no limit support from Bernard Arnault.
He is the one who is going to decide of the new codes!
Basing on his own label success experience aside, he can now impose its own view in fashion world.It’s amazing as well to see how he patiently built his own personality.
Don’t forget that at the time he was named to become the new Dior Homme creative art director, he already left Dior for several months to build his own label. With his own label, he immediately developed a fresh and new romantic line with radical modernism. “A world of nonchalant elegance” which was already far from the sharp and whirling world of Hedi. Almost opposite. Hedi was having his roots into the hysterical contemporary rock culture when Kriss was looking backwards and forwards to other times, other spaces and cultures.
The SS10 "COLD LOVE" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme
In those conditions, how would you want Kriss had, even a second, in mind, that he would come back to Dior as the new director of creation for Dior Homme, with the only aim to only repeat the conformist codes of the House?
"Ma quête reste toujours la même. Celle d’une élégance radicale. Il faut qu’elle soit moderne et sensible, tout en traduisant l’énergie de notre époque. La beauté est un état de grâce, une noblesse naturelle sans caricature ni posture."
"My quest is always keeping the same. This is the one of a radical elegancy. It has to be modern and sensitive, finding at once its expression in nowadays energy. Beauty is a state of grace, a natural nobleness far from caricature or pretense."Kriss's interview revealed by Christian Poulot in Portraits for The Modalogue Tuesday, February 10, 2009: http://www.ykone.com/ltd/portraits/interview-de-kris-van-assche#more-168
The AW10 "COAL" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme
This is how collection after collection, he then feels free to explore his own creative vision up to his ultimate SS2011 collection for Dior Homme.
“LESSNESS” is Kriss's most final convergence up to now. A whole explanation and a complete understanding in itself. His confidence and his talent as well are now strong enough to skip out superfluity.
Superfluity in design, in fashion, in HIMSELF!
At the end of the show, Kriss will come back to give himself the final explanation:
“LESSNESS…a play on words, on the “less is more” concept, a return to the True Luxury, the Essential. We cannot make anymore with flashy rubbish, we do have priority in quality, high standard finishing, fitting…Of course, there is tailoring but moreover there is Comfort, the True Luxury, because to be straight caught in a suit is honestly inelegant, no more possible nowadays…”
Thus, the whole show is an odyssey to the True Luxury but the True Luxury is not anymore extravagance, exuberance as it used to be in usual fashion codes and as in most of our lifes. And which luxury brand better than Dior, true emblem of the French luxury tradition, is able to lead this new crusade with Kriss at its head? The ambition is here to bring Luxury to its most accurate extremes : the minimalism for philosophy, the ultimate quality and savoir-faire of Haute Couture for vehicle, the modernism and the comfort for aim.
...”LESS IS MORE!”...
* * *
When the defile begins the two first models wear long coats which are quite surprising for a summer show, but this is in fact a link, a wink I should say, to the previous AW2010 strong collection: “COAL”. There will be many other long coats coming soon later…but none of them in the “LESSNESS” collection will show again the same shiny silky aspect that some had into the “COAL” defile.
No more need of showy fabrics. No more need of the “More”.
Only the essential worths. Only the “Less” works.
This choice to begin the show with coats is also to enhance the visual impact of the army of young monks in black sandals taking up the challenge into the white desert of the huge stage. And no doubt here, that the desert, which is like an empty space on earth, with no real location data, is of course the natural “LESS” kingdom. A timeless area that any civilization could have crossed by, a cultural crossroads from West to East, to East from West, from North to South, from South to North.
The collection is the Designer intellectual crossroads.
Each of the silhouettes is alike a crossover between civilizations, time and space references.
It seems the young warriors have dressed from the spirit and the emotions they collected through their long pilgrimages building a new and modern style they made their. In some of the pieces there is an obvious translation of North Africa to urban Europe, in others a mutation of Orient to Occident, or in yet one more a contraction of medieval age into post apocalyptic time. Djellaba fluidity meets V-shaped kimono neckline or Mao collars, sleeveless monk tunic simplicity meets destructured modern suits…
They all show the Van Assche's signatures as Tim Blanks perfectly resumes into his personal review about the “Lessness” catwalk: “monochrome palette, extreme volumes, and unstructured djellabalike fluidity, all of it highlighted on models of surpassing youth.“
- Tim Blanks for Style.com: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2011MEN-CDMEN
First coats to appear are nearly down to the feet, bringing something of almost Gothic, whatever timeless. They are made of incredible lightweight fabrics.
First one coat has no sleeves, it is destructured, asymmetric like most of the coats on the show. Its large lapels, wide opened over the torso, swirl free all along down to the coat bottom. The edges are simply napkin hemmed. The beautiful lightweight fabric elegantly follows the turbulence generated when walking.
Other coats later on the show will show any kind of variation like internal white overstitched seams or alteration of cut or length.
Dusters are not even more a coat or a jacket, the length being so much altered from one side to the other side into an extreme asymmetrical pattern.
The three first models wore under a white immaculate white V-neck tunic.
A lot of tunics in the show, whatever they are white or black have a large deep V-neck.
The others have a deep crew-neck open on the chest.
They are worn very simply as a tank, without sleeves, often with large shoulder pads like a remembrance of the 2002 “Red/Boys don't cry” Dior Homme collection.
But when some of the shirts simply fall down freely straight, others show a beautiful faux-wrap down to the waist.
They are most of the time much more destructured and asymmetric as well, often wide open on their side floating in the air. A few of them, to add to the asymmetry, wear a low pocket, delimited by a white stitching at their upper end, on the same left hand-side where the shoulder part of the tunic is ending longer than the right sleeve which ends not to exist anymore.
There will also be a v-shaped caftan,
several Mao collar shirts,
and even one priest collar shirt,
but the most uncluttered, ascetic ones will be simple sleeveless asymmetric crew-neck tunics. Again, as any of the asymmetries into the collection (except the last coat but one of the defile) the asymmetry is always worn on the left-hand side.
Jackets not staying outdone also show asymmetry but in a different way:We already told about the length making long jackets or short coats up to opinion,
we can also speak about the originality of the jackets disparate front panels: when the right one is straight tailored, the left one is angled to the middle.
If most of them have very thin lapels, one of the two can be mutated into a shawl,
sometimes they can also be freely let out round and falling down along with grace.
There is even one jacket which totally lost its collar for a sort of large crew-neck with kinda Russian unilateral side closure. Right in the middle of the crew-neck is an amazing 10 inches front fly.
Safari jackets are also part of the show, with or without sleeves.
They are once worn directly over the skin,
or even over a jacket.
There is even one suede leather version.
Two of the models wear a large belt of black fabric wrapped around the waist down on the hips. Like a sketchy call of the old zouaves of North Africa. Belt doesn't seem to be an accessory of predilection for the summer collection as most of the models finally don't wear a belt.
For this summer collection, whatever accessories don't seem to be a focus for Kriss.
In fact, the only real accessory is a big leather bag, shown 2 times during the show.
Trousers simply fall down on the hips, only sometimes a thin white upper seam underlines the waist.
Trousers are all low-slung, the crotch a bit low, not really wide but not slim for sure, just straight but fluid.
They make beautiful folds gracefully animated when walking. They are all tucked in sandals giving them an indefinite puffed aspect at the bottom.
Away the years where hi-tops and sneakers were the unvarying rule for Dior summer collections. Since several years already, Kriss had made the choice to include sandals into his own label codes, this is now Dior Homme turn. Those are black and simple but very convincing hi-tops sandals, perfectly achieving the general style. The only one not wearing sandal is Kriss himself who preferred some grey suede boots he chose the day before the defile when he came at Dior Montaigne.
The SS2011 collection and the show were both very ambitious: The collection in its purpose, the show in its concept.The defile is set to magnify the collection. But moreover, everything from the music to the implementation, from the progression to the concept is learnedly orchestrated to emphasize the extreme precision the challenge of the “Lessness” Credo.
To contribute to the understanding, the show was ingeniously shared in three different parts linked together:
The hypnotism of the drums and the strings, the slow and sorrowful oriental recitative of the cello then seconded by a brass have to stop for the audience to see the first change into the monochrome.
The ascetic first part was to enunciate the concept, then to develop it with no diversion.
After a short breath in silence, the first soft sand beige fabrics appear within the hazy lightness of a piano notes.
Slowly the soft and ash grays are introduced until rhythm strikes again.
Six young Asian models wonderfully bring the blue in.
The three last coats are absolutely breathtaking, the last one being just like a stunning resume of the whole show: the incredible precision in the tailoring, the unbelievable audacity and innovation in the destructured design, the incredible lightness and beauty of the fabric which magically flies into the air.
That's just MAGNIFICENT!
That's the best collection ever Kriss did for Dior Homme up to date!
That's an enormous success with uninterrupted applause during all the final when the long column of 41 young missionaries comes back for a last turn.
Kriss, a broad smile on the face, very humble as usual, appears in a lightning then disappears.
The designer and Dior had both a strong message to deliver:
The collection purpose was to focus, as we explained before, on minimalism, pure tailoring and highest quality of the fabrics.
These values are hence-forwards those of Dior Homme Luxury.
Usually the minimalism is not, the easiest concept to explore for a great traditional luxury fashion House. So, affirming that “Less is more” is like leading a Crusade.
Dior wants to prove its modernity, wants to prove that the Fashion House is not only an institution but a true actor of the modernity without denying the basis which have made the House. A committed Fashion House with a contemporary cause to defend.
Dior meets the challenge:
First need was to find a visionary able to make his ideas a philosophy, then to give him the confidence and the means, to make from him the indisputable leader to the cause.
There has been a time for adaptation, Kriss and Bernard Arnault then have met, this is time for action now.
They are both aware that there is no easy fight, no easy win.
“LESSNESS” success is, in fact, only a new step onto a long collaboration road on which each of the battles will have to be won patiently, one by one, to become History.
I personally never had a such strong feeling after a collection by Kriss.
Everybody understands how much positive I am about the “LESSNESS” new collection!...
Last winter, “COAL” had already been a huge success. But this time, with “LESSNESS”, there is like something more happening.
The best proof is undoubtedly that after the audience great reception, the critics showering fulsome praise, the whole alternative fashion world gives, its turn, great words as well. There is for the first time like a general consensus about the ultimate quality of the SS2011 collection.
Congratulations Mr Kriss van Assche !
"…Je savais ce que je voulais même si je n’avais aucune certitude quant à l’aboutissment de mes rêves… Il faut avoir à la fois de la chance mais aussi faire preuve de courage, d’un travail acharné et d’une concentration à toute épreuve. Il faut écouter les conseils mais ne pas être frileux…"
"... I knew what I wanted even if I had no certitudes about my dreams achievement...You must be somewhat lucky but also be constantly working hard and always keeping a never failing concentration. You must listen to advises but never be feeble..."
Kriss van Assche
http://www.ykone.com/ltd/portraits/interview-de-kris-van-assche#more-168
Revealed by Christian Poulot in Ykone. Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Of course, I understood "less" and "ness" at the end of a word but put together there was like a kind of abstraction to me...Was it "nothing" or even "less than nothing", which to tell the truth is a strange concept for a fashion
summer collection?!... I had an ironic strange vision in my mind: Were the models going to run nude on the stage ?...
I finally thought I was certainly wrong in this idea as Dior Homme makes money in selling clothes, so nudity was for sure not the right clue!
I, then, wondered if "Lessness" could be in relation with
the "Short Stories" by Samuel Beckett when the author first wrote in French, then changed the sentences words display into a random way before translating in English...?...Maybe...Whatever I am having some difficulties again to imagine without a high sense of humor what could be the result on a fashion collection...
* * *
Still digging into my brain, my reflection led me to the Halle Freyssinet: Built in 1927 from concrete, iron and glass, this used to be an industrial place linked to railway tracks....Until it was recently renewed for all kind of events like, by instance, fashion shows...Kriss choosing an ancient industrial place for the new collection was maybe a clue as well... I couldn't help myself to think that many of the alternative fashion brands like Carol Christian Poell, Julius, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Julius, Rick Owens, etc...chose also, in their time, to show in industrial places...Saturday, close to 3PM, 30° outside, Paris is under heavy sun.
Two railway tracks enter into the "Halle" were the "Tout Paris" is slowly dying of overheat, 35° inside, no air...the two railways tracks shamefully die into the "nothingness", at the bottom of the all white show stage...From the carpet, up to the curtains, everything is draped in white...Reminds me the minimal piece of white fabric used for the invitation: "Lessness / DIOR HOMME".
...MINIMAL...
As an immutable ritual, the huge crowd of invited guests and VIPs, sat over the white stepped rows of seats all around the immaculate stage, waits for Karl Lagerfeld to be the last one to make his solemn entrance with his court…* * *
Suddenly coming as a huge quake from the bowels of the Earth, the ground trembles under the sound of an Asian tribal big drum, the white bluish floods enlighten through the central curtains circle, the drums intone the first rhythm of the soundtrack from Kar Wei Wong's 2046...a strong and throbbing rhythm.
A sliding spectrum appears a short time through the light, then a second ephemeral shadow slides around, then a walking silhouette loomed up out of the white evanescence , soon followed by a second one, then a third one... The music is hypnotic...This is now like an endless decimated column of black figures, turning around, into the moon washed limbs of the white curtains spiral at the very heart of the stage,appearing, vanishing alternately, like searching for an issue...when at the attack of the strings into the music the first black warrior is delivered out of the limbs..The faces are closed, footsteps determined, apace ...those shaped figures look like an ascetic army of the last defenders of the faith...* * *
This metaphor, here, to explain how I personally felt the setting… but not only myself from what we discussed later on with other people after the show: This is now the ultimate aim from Kriss to concentrate only on the essential: the only shape, the purest design, the Couture!Relieved, show after show,-of the eternal old and ancient clichés of Dior fashion codes, -of the Dior management obligations, -of the severe (and unfair) critics from the specialized press he had to face at his first beginnings when he replaced Hedi Slimane at the head of Dior Creation department,-of Hedi’s fans expectations,
-of Dior House clients habits,
-of being only a poor continuation,
Kriss van Assche feels, now, totally free.
Collection after collection, he has succeeded to drive away all the valuable reserves about his potentiality, about his ability to become a leader into fashion world.Year after year, he imposed his own style up to become the new reference.
If one has to be even more convinced of his new status, it is easy to look at the audience today, at the large number of present VIPs, at the numerous international buyers, at the press people and photographs, at Dior House investment into an expensive show. He patiently won the endless confidence of all the people here. Kriss has now become the new idol of fashion in Paris since he ranked N°1 for best collection of the year with Dior Homme last winter collection and N°5 under his own label at the same time.But for those who know the Designer, as almost a shy and interiorized person, discrete and upright, it is more than obvious that this man will never be able to satisfy himself of what he can only consider as a step, an instant snapshot into a whole continuous artistic process. He is conscious enough to know he has kind of a fight to lead, a crusade to carry on as a very personal challenge but overall for the values he trust in: DESIGN, FASHION, COUTURE.
Kriss totally accepts as his own this crusade for coming back to the roots of Couture, in a simple, innovative, strong, pure and very personal style. But coming back to roots doesn't mean regression, this is exactly the opposite. It means to recenter fashion on its main cultural and historical basis to go further in modernism.
So, “Lessness” is nowadays most ultimate development into Kriss's creative process. Each new collection, coming up on stage for its very first exposure, is each time a kind of birth. This is the strung-up moment when after a long gestation of creative and handcrafting process into the darkness of the fashion house ateliers, all the emotional expectations of the artist come to light.
Here, the central moon washed limbs at the very heart of the stage are in fact like an uterus of light delivering Kriss's creation. * * *
This is the instant of all dangers. The artist is now totally exposed. The purpose has to be sharp and strong, cohesive and of clear direction. The language has to be assertive and convincing, carrying on easy identifying codes.
And this is precisely what the “Lessness” catwalk and collection offer to the audience:
Nothing is extravagant, Everything is mainly black.
Nothing is a hazard, Everything is determined.
Nothing is ease, Everything is a challenge.
Nothing is redundant, Everything focused on the Essential.
Nothing falls into decorative, Everything is restrained into Minimalism.
The art direction is clear and incisive, style is innovative and resolutely contemporary, avant-gardist one could say. Those are undoubtedly the active ingredient of a new inescapable success.Together the lines are pure, the edges are rough, the angles tense, the curves soft but always to better shape the design. There is a permanent will to concentrate on clean line.Fabrics are fluid, often austere, never showy but of extreme quality. Movement is used to emphasize even more the cut just like butterflies taking advantage of flight to better reveal the beauty of their perfect shape. Movement is obviously part of the design.There is no lining.
For anyone who knows a bit about Couture, it is well known that' it is of the greatest difficulty to tailor, especially jackets and coats, without the use of lining.Lining is giving weight to the fabrics, hide the way the different parts are sewn together and especially the inside invisible stitching which give tense and direction to the outside fabrics, lining also helps the cloth to slide over the body, to get a pleasant contact to the skin.
There are now three collections (SS2010, AW2010, SS2011) that Kriss has made his signature to get rid of the lining, giving so an incredible lightness to his clothes, giving himself a new freedom.
What could the lining use here when the will is to concentrate on the Essential?
What could be the interest of a lining, whatever almost always hidden in fashion use, when achieving the aim to disclose the truth.
There is no lie into Kriss’s work.
Fabric dresses the body, I should say the anatomy, never hurts it, never fight against it but, more important, better than simply following the movement, IS THE MOVEMENT ITSELF !
* * *
So, model after model, the Kiss’s ascetic army is on the march. As said previously, there is no place for extravagance. All is based on tailoring, black is the unique color for the biggest part of the show, there is no need of other colors to draw the silhouettes.
When the main purpose will be established for well only some sand beige , ash gray and blue colors will then be sparingly introduced.It is so surprising to see such a perfect shaping; it is just like if we are looking to exact pencil drawings from the hand of Kriss, it's so graphic! And I would add so evident, so obvious, just like if any line, any edge, any stitching is just where it can only be!Sometimes, at the most, a white stitching or a white line can be seen on garments. But these are never decoration. They are direction. They are a distinctive sign, a directive sparkle of light through the shadow to emphasize once a construction line, once a movement, or furthermore an anatomic transition but never, a selfish catcher of the eyes.* * *
So, before coming back to the "LESSNESS" show, it's maybe time now to stop on Kriss van Assche's evolution through his last collections for Dior Homme:How far and how stronger we are now from his first post Hedi Slimane collections for Dior Homme! I never personally thought they were bad, far from me this idea, I loved quite a lot pieces but there was maybe as a lack of real strong personal direction, of personal decision, as an hesitation to a definitive affirmation .
But the reality seems to have a more valuable explanation:There was, of course, an obvious need by the Dior House management to insure kinda continuity after Hedi Slimane departure, making so, an heavy pressure on Kriss van Assche’s shoulders.
At the same time, Kriss could not be only a Hedi’s clone. He already had the will to affirm his own originality. In consequence, in the first collections by Kriss we had a curious mix between continuity, obligations and personal affirmation which could not allow the collections to be as strong as they could have been. Each time beautiful, of course, but just a little step under what they could have reached if the codes would have been authorized to be broken for well, straight from the very beginning of the new collaboration. But the changes were already in march, but maybe unfortunately still with an homeopathic dosage…
For me, in my own opinion, Hedi was more a genius re-interpreter than a true creator and there is absolutely nothing of pejorative in it. The best proof, and I am the first to agree, and nobody can contest it today, is that Hedi is the one who changed the men fashion in the early 2000.
What I mean is that as a photograph that he is, he was the one who translated the street and Rock’n Roll codes and attitude into fashion. Kriss was his first assistant, and of course at this point could not be otherwise than being under Hedi’s influence.
Hedi created his best collections early when he entered as the new Dior designer. This was the time when he surprised everybody into fashion world with its more creative collections for Dior Homme as “Follow me”, “Luster”, “Strip”, “VOTC”: narrow silhouettes, slim shaping, precise tailoring, architectural and slightly subversive style expressed on juvenile models, innovative process on high quality fabrics, etc…
What was basically new was to make those the new fashion codes…codes that were in fact not new on the Rock’n Roll scene but new in fashion…that is why I previously wrote he was for me more a genius re-interpreter....
But whatever he did forge the Dior Homme image that many people still have in mind even yet today.
-To be perfectly honest, in the meantime, I have to moderate my sentiments with the incredible dreamlike “Luster” collection and show where Hedi created a true phantasmagorical universe of unbelievable creation, never seen before and which will ever keep in contemporary fashion history...-
The AW03 "LUSTER" Ad. Campaign by Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme SS08 Kriss van Assche first collection for Dior HommeThe Ad. campaign already shows a new and personal direction for Dior Homme.
Style is deliberately based on both a very elegant and romantic classicism allied to the very "couture" tradition of the Fashion House, in the spirit of Christian Dior.
Maybe the biggest difference between Hedi and Kriss is that Kriss was much more a Tailor, a true Couture expert than Hedi was. I don’t mean at all he was a better designer, that’s only that Kriss had a better knowledge of handcraft, of traditional tailoring, a larger background in tailoring and fashion techniques and savoir-faire.
I just want to explain, therefore, that their backgrounds are finally totally different…
They are both accomplished artists interested and expressing themselves through many different medias, they have been both creative directors in fashion houses but their approaches, their personalities are so different that their creative expressions can only be different.
And anybody can see it as soon as Kriss issues its very first true collection “Lumière du Nord” for Dior Homme: The tailoring is more sophisticated, the fabrics are more immediately sumptuous…
The AW08 "LUMIERE DU NORD" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior HommeAt the same time he begins to include non slim patterns, especially into trousers but they keep mixed with what has become now traditional slim Dior lines…
So, it makes the original Dior Homme fans a bit disoriented and disappointed…and perhaps neither makes Kriss really happy. But the commercial response is good and Dior can keep its confidence in Kriss as the art director of the fashion house. Whatever they were conscious enough from the beginning that Kriss task was a tough challenge to come after Hedi.
The following collection SS2009 can then be considered as the first turn into Kriss artistic expression, which in fact neither means that this summer collection really brings a change into the curious first “hybrid” collections but it only means that after this collection nothing will be like before.What happened?
This is maybe the Dior Homme collection which received the worst critics. Kriss broke again some of the Dior Homme codes, bringing up some crazy unusual colors in Dior universe: bright gold, blue, pink...jewels on garments, rich embroideries, etc… !
It was received but many of Hedi’s addicts just like a blaspheme. How could he dare doing this?
The answer is easy: This is that HE DARED!The SS09 "BLOW" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior HommeThis is this one summer collection which really gave “Wings” to Kriss to fly free - which is quite funny because this SS2009 collection “Blow” is often misnamed “Wings” by many people! Certainly because of the bugs, butterflies wings ornaments on many pieces of the collection -.
This also the time where all the craziest rumors inflate about Kriss going to be soon replaced by Gareth Pugh at the head of Dior creative department!
Far from this, the reality is that Dior Homme never sold so much and Dior management renews its total confidence in Kriss and nothing will be the same from now! Kriss dared and nothing bad happened!
Breaking the ancient codes was breaking the chains! He can go further now.
The AW09 "ANGLES" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior HommeKriss wins even more in confidence and feels time has come now: he feels no more obligations to assume the Dior codes of the past, he has no pressure over him and gets a no limit support from Bernard Arnault.
He is the one who is going to decide of the new codes!
Basing on his own label success experience aside, he can now impose its own view in fashion world.It’s amazing as well to see how he patiently built his own personality.
Don’t forget that at the time he was named to become the new Dior Homme creative art director, he already left Dior for several months to build his own label. With his own label, he immediately developed a fresh and new romantic line with radical modernism. “A world of nonchalant elegance” which was already far from the sharp and whirling world of Hedi. Almost opposite. Hedi was having his roots into the hysterical contemporary rock culture when Kriss was looking backwards and forwards to other times, other spaces and cultures.
The SS10 "COLD LOVE" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior Homme"Ma quête reste toujours la même. Celle d’une élégance radicale. Il faut qu’elle soit moderne et sensible, tout en traduisant l’énergie de notre époque. La beauté est un état de grâce, une noblesse naturelle sans caricature ni posture."
"My quest is always keeping the same. This is the one of a radical elegancy. It has to be modern and sensitive, finding at once its expression in nowadays energy. Beauty is a state of grace, a natural nobleness far from caricature or pretense."Kriss's interview revealed by Christian Poulot in Portraits for The Modalogue Tuesday, February 10, 2009: http://www.ykone.com/ltd/portraits/interview-de-kris-van-assche#more-168
The AW10 "COAL" collection by Kriss van Assche for Dior HommeThis is how collection after collection, he then feels free to explore his own creative vision up to his ultimate SS2011 collection for Dior Homme.
“LESSNESS” is Kriss's most final convergence up to now. A whole explanation and a complete understanding in itself. His confidence and his talent as well are now strong enough to skip out superfluity.
Superfluity in design, in fashion, in HIMSELF!
At the end of the show, Kriss will come back to give himself the final explanation:
“LESSNESS…a play on words, on the “less is more” concept, a return to the True Luxury, the Essential. We cannot make anymore with flashy rubbish, we do have priority in quality, high standard finishing, fitting…Of course, there is tailoring but moreover there is Comfort, the True Luxury, because to be straight caught in a suit is honestly inelegant, no more possible nowadays…”
Thus, the whole show is an odyssey to the True Luxury but the True Luxury is not anymore extravagance, exuberance as it used to be in usual fashion codes and as in most of our lifes. And which luxury brand better than Dior, true emblem of the French luxury tradition, is able to lead this new crusade with Kriss at its head? The ambition is here to bring Luxury to its most accurate extremes : the minimalism for philosophy, the ultimate quality and savoir-faire of Haute Couture for vehicle, the modernism and the comfort for aim.
...”LESS IS MORE!”...
* * *
When the defile begins the two first models wear long coats which are quite surprising for a summer show, but this is in fact a link, a wink I should say, to the previous AW2010 strong collection: “COAL”. There will be many other long coats coming soon later…but none of them in the “LESSNESS” collection will show again the same shiny silky aspect that some had into the “COAL” defile.
No more need of showy fabrics. No more need of the “More”.
Only the essential worths. Only the “Less” works.
This choice to begin the show with coats is also to enhance the visual impact of the army of young monks in black sandals taking up the challenge into the white desert of the huge stage. And no doubt here, that the desert, which is like an empty space on earth, with no real location data, is of course the natural “LESS” kingdom. A timeless area that any civilization could have crossed by, a cultural crossroads from West to East, to East from West, from North to South, from South to North. The collection is the Designer intellectual crossroads.
Each of the silhouettes is alike a crossover between civilizations, time and space references.
It seems the young warriors have dressed from the spirit and the emotions they collected through their long pilgrimages building a new and modern style they made their. In some of the pieces there is an obvious translation of North Africa to urban Europe, in others a mutation of Orient to Occident, or in yet one more a contraction of medieval age into post apocalyptic time. Djellaba fluidity meets V-shaped kimono neckline or Mao collars, sleeveless monk tunic simplicity meets destructured modern suits…
They all show the Van Assche's signatures as Tim Blanks perfectly resumes into his personal review about the “Lessness” catwalk: “monochrome palette, extreme volumes, and unstructured djellabalike fluidity, all of it highlighted on models of surpassing youth.“
- Tim Blanks for Style.com: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2011MEN-CDMEN
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First one coat has no sleeves, it is destructured, asymmetric like most of the coats on the show. Its large lapels, wide opened over the torso, swirl free all along down to the coat bottom. The edges are simply napkin hemmed. The beautiful lightweight fabric elegantly follows the turbulence generated when walking. Other coats later on the show will show any kind of variation like internal white overstitched seams or alteration of cut or length. Dusters are not even more a coat or a jacket, the length being so much altered from one side to the other side into an extreme asymmetrical pattern.-
The three first models wore under a white immaculate white V-neck tunic. A lot of tunics in the show, whatever they are white or black have a large deep V-neck. The others have a deep crew-neck open on the chest.
They are worn very simply as a tank, without sleeves, often with large shoulder pads like a remembrance of the 2002 “Red/Boys don't cry” Dior Homme collection.
But when some of the shirts simply fall down freely straight, others show a beautiful faux-wrap down to the waist.
They are most of the time much more destructured and asymmetric as well, often wide open on their side floating in the air. A few of them, to add to the asymmetry, wear a low pocket, delimited by a white stitching at their upper end, on the same left hand-side where the shoulder part of the tunic is ending longer than the right sleeve which ends not to exist anymore.There will also be a v-shaped caftan, several Mao collar shirts, and even one priest collar shirt,but the most uncluttered, ascetic ones will be simple sleeveless asymmetric crew-neck tunics. Again, as any of the asymmetries into the collection (except the last coat but one of the defile) the asymmetry is always worn on the left-hand side. -
Jackets not staying outdone also show asymmetry but in a different way:We already told about the length making long jackets or short coats up to opinion,
we can also speak about the originality of the jackets disparate front panels: when the right one is straight tailored, the left one is angled to the middle.If most of them have very thin lapels, one of the two can be mutated into a shawl,sometimes they can also be freely let out round and falling down along with grace.
There is even one jacket which totally lost its collar for a sort of large crew-neck with kinda Russian unilateral side closure. Right in the middle of the crew-neck is an amazing 10 inches front fly.Safari jackets are also part of the show, with or without sleeves.
They are once worn directly over the skin, or even over a jacket.There is even one suede leather version.-
Two of the models wear a large belt of black fabric wrapped around the waist down on the hips. Like a sketchy call of the old zouaves of North Africa. Belt doesn't seem to be an accessory of predilection for the summer collection as most of the models finally don't wear a belt. -
For this summer collection, whatever accessories don't seem to be a focus for Kriss.
In fact, the only real accessory is a big leather bag, shown 2 times during the show.-
Trousers simply fall down on the hips, only sometimes a thin white upper seam underlines the waist.Trousers are all low-slung, the crotch a bit low, not really wide but not slim for sure, just straight but fluid. They make beautiful folds gracefully animated when walking. They are all tucked in sandals giving them an indefinite puffed aspect at the bottom.-
Away the years where hi-tops and sneakers were the unvarying rule for Dior summer collections. Since several years already, Kriss had made the choice to include sandals into his own label codes, this is now Dior Homme turn. Those are black and simple but very convincing hi-tops sandals, perfectly achieving the general style. The only one not wearing sandal is Kriss himself who preferred some grey suede boots he chose the day before the defile when he came at Dior Montaigne.* * *
The SS2011 collection and the show were both very ambitious: The collection in its purpose, the show in its concept.The defile is set to magnify the collection. But moreover, everything from the music to the implementation, from the progression to the concept is learnedly orchestrated to emphasize the extreme precision the challenge of the “Lessness” Credo.
To contribute to the understanding, the show was ingeniously shared in three different parts linked together:
The hypnotism of the drums and the strings, the slow and sorrowful oriental recitative of the cello then seconded by a brass have to stop for the audience to see the first change into the monochrome.
The ascetic first part was to enunciate the concept, then to develop it with no diversion.
After a short breath in silence, the first soft sand beige fabrics appear within the hazy lightness of a piano notes.
Slowly the soft and ash grays are introduced until rhythm strikes again.
Six young Asian models wonderfully bring the blue in.
The three last coats are absolutely breathtaking, the last one being just like a stunning resume of the whole show: the incredible precision in the tailoring, the unbelievable audacity and innovation in the destructured design, the incredible lightness and beauty of the fabric which magically flies into the air.
That's just MAGNIFICENT!
That's the best collection ever Kriss did for Dior Homme up to date!
* * *
That's an enormous success with uninterrupted applause during all the final when the long column of 41 young missionaries comes back for a last turn.Kriss, a broad smile on the face, very humble as usual, appears in a lightning then disappears.Show is over...
The Dior Crew and the models, backstage, can now let explode their happiness .
* * *
The Dior Crew and the models, backstage, can now let explode their happiness * * *
The designer and Dior had both a strong message to deliver:
The collection purpose was to focus, as we explained before, on minimalism, pure tailoring and highest quality of the fabrics.
These values are hence-forwards those of Dior Homme Luxury.
Usually the minimalism is not, the easiest concept to explore for a great traditional luxury fashion House. So, affirming that “Less is more” is like leading a Crusade.
Dior wants to prove its modernity, wants to prove that the Fashion House is not only an institution but a true actor of the modernity without denying the basis which have made the House. A committed Fashion House with a contemporary cause to defend.
Dior meets the challenge:
First need was to find a visionary able to make his ideas a philosophy, then to give him the confidence and the means, to make from him the indisputable leader to the cause.
There has been a time for adaptation, Kriss and Bernard Arnault then have met, this is time for action now.
They are both aware that there is no easy fight, no easy win.
“LESSNESS” success is, in fact, only a new step onto a long collaboration road on which each of the battles will have to be won patiently, one by one, to become History.
I personally never had a such strong feeling after a collection by Kriss.
Everybody understands how much positive I am about the “LESSNESS” new collection!...
Last winter, “COAL” had already been a huge success. But this time, with “LESSNESS”, there is like something more happening.
The best proof is undoubtedly that after the audience great reception, the critics showering fulsome praise, the whole alternative fashion world gives, its turn, great words as well. There is for the first time like a general consensus about the ultimate quality of the SS2011 collection.
Congratulations Mr Kriss van Assche !
Thierry G.
for BIRDYLAND I.A.A.
for BIRDYLAND I.A.A.
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"…Je savais ce que je voulais même si je n’avais aucune certitude quant à l’aboutissment de mes rêves… Il faut avoir à la fois de la chance mais aussi faire preuve de courage, d’un travail acharné et d’une concentration à toute épreuve. Il faut écouter les conseils mais ne pas être frileux…"
"... I knew what I wanted even if I had no certitudes about my dreams achievement...You must be somewhat lucky but also be constantly working hard and always keeping a never failing concentration. You must listen to advises but never be feeble..."
Kriss van Assche
http://www.ykone.com/ltd/portraits/interview-de-kris-van-assche#more-168
Revealed by Christian Poulot in Ykone. Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
All pictures on this review by Dior, Madame Figaro, Team Peter Stigter....and some by me.
Cover work by Birdyland Intelligence Art Agency.
I would like to thank Diego, Vincent, Charlotte, Laurent and all the team at Dior Montaigne for their constant support, professionalism and kindness.
I don't forget Alan C. for making the Multiply Dior Homme group a reality.
COPYRIGHT:
Text use or reproduction is not allowed without prior permission by the author.
All pictures on this review by Dior, Madame Figaro, Team Peter Stigter....and some by me.
Cover work by Birdyland Intelligence Art Agency.
I would like to thank Diego, Vincent, Charlotte, Laurent and all the team at Dior Montaigne for their constant support, professionalism and kindness.
I don't forget Alan C. for making the Multiply Dior Homme group a reality.
COPYRIGHT:
Text use or reproduction is not allowed without prior permission by the author.
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