Christian Dior SS15 looks backwards to advance forwards, Raf Simons is remixing history channelling the sentiments of July’s Couture collection

Haute Couture meets Pret-a-Porter

For Christian Dior SS15 Raf Simons has continued the sentiments of July’s couture collection, transcending them into the realm of pret-a-porter. Looking backwards to move forwards, Raf remixes history giving it a current edge, this season bringing couture techniques to the masses and referencing the 18th century French royal court attire of both sexes fused with the uniforms of pilots, astronauts and even school girls and skaters as inspiration.

What is modern?

“I started to think ‘what is modern?’ I wanted to deal with a form language that looks to be almost the oppo- site of my original inspiration at Dior,” says Raf Simons. “It was an idea of confronting what people now think is an aesthetic that is modern – it felt more modern to go to the far past, not the ‘modernised’ look of the last decade. The challenge was to bring the attitude of contemporary reality to something very historical; bringing easiness to something that could be perceived as theatrical. It is the attitude that matters.”

Defining details

We saw bulbous exaggerated hips, funnel-neck white tunic dresses, leather belted bell-sleeve jump suits, bomber-cross-bolero jackets, bright hued silk sleeveless robes, 18th Century court coats, micro-jacquards, re-imagined high-necklines and even skater shorts advance down the runway. Strict historical accuracy has been met by Raf’s vivid imagination and the result is off-beat and unique.

Words: Brooke McCord.