Managing to combine such diametrically opposed elements as bold colours, graphic lines, handwritten texts and formal tailoring, the Summer 2015 Dior Homme collection by Kris Van Assche offers a finely balanced dialogue between the bohemian and the bourgeois.
The starting point was found in the house's own past. "I was inspired by a letter written by Christian Dior in the 1950s that I found in the archive," says Van Assche. "In it he says how 'Traditions have to be maintained so they can be passed on to future generations. In troubled times like ours, we must maintain these traditions, which are our luxury and the flower of our civilisation.'" So taken was he by these words that the handwritten text even found its way on to the collection's shirts, suit jackets, trousers and bags.
The spirit of the clothing is informed by a breaking of the codes and a bending of the rules that normally govern menswear. The clichés and traditions of the bourgeois masculine wardrobe are looked at in a new light, rejuvenated by those of the creative and freer world of bohemia.
Even the set of the show reflected a stark contrast between city and country life. It was conceived as a kind of crossroads, a place where Van Assche imagined "different types of men could meet."
