Paris Menswear Autumn/Winter 2008

Dior Homme
Karl Lagerfled, Peter Marino, John Galliano, Dior joallerie designer Victoire de Castellane, Bernard Arnault, artist Francesco Vezzoli and oddly enough performer Amanda Lepore, made up the impressive front row that turned up for Kris Van Assche’s first show for Dior Homme (last season, his first, he opted for a more low key presentation).

The all-black set had performers from the Wim Mertens Ensemble, dramatically positioned in recesses down the side of the tent and Mertens himself, a contemporary Flemish composer who wrote the score, at a grand piano on the black carpeted runway (live music is a theme of the week with a pianist at Vuitton and a quartet at Dries Van Noten).

The collection was called Lumière du Nord, and Van Assche described it as 'radical elegance'. It was, apart from a small amount of dark green, entirely in black. The models (apparently an all-South American cast) in their dark clothes and white make-up, looked almost goth and were a stark contrast from the ease seen elsewhere in Milan and Paris, and on Van Assche’s own label runway a few days before.

As a brand, Dior Homme has an identity that is about as strong as it gets, to begin to move the brand forward is no easy task.

Images: Catwalking.com