The Belgian designer Kris Van Assche has achieved a comfortable balance of late, lightening up his eponymous label with comic, sporty touches and leaving the full force of his poetic gravity to shine at Dior Homme. Recent outings have seen tailoring sliced through sports jerseys and poppy polka dots, however for Friday's show he chose houndstooth and herringbone as his graphic abstraction du jour, citing the layered artworks of Californian conceptualist John Baldessari as the collection's starting point. He'd fallen for a picture called 'Man Running' and layered puffy vests and tunics slapdash over shirting and suits, echoing that particular work's flat blue dot, turning it later into a confetti print or knotted silk buttons. His flocked hound's tooth badges were a welcome appliqué effect that broke the staid palette, streaking across palatable, boxy tailoring and tops like neon Thunderbirds.
Photography: Anna Stokland/Jason Lloyd-Evans
