fall '13 couture hits & misses: dior.

I can blame being busy/exams/everything else on my embarassing lack of attention and focus on all the collections this past... year (head hangs in shame), but there's really no excuse for missing out on the shining highlights of the industry that grace us annually on numerous occasions and in numerous ways. My favorite of these has always been Cruise/Resort, which is even lighter and brighter than Spring/Summer collections and have an amazing flavor of wearability and reality to them. On the entirely opposite side we have Couture; where designers roll up their sleeves and churn out multi-million dollar collections with designs so elaborate they occasionally become nonsensical and excessively theatrical. I sometimes get the feeling that these costumes of simultaneous sophistication and hilarity are unconditionally accepted and celebrated throughout the industry with a sort of deep-rooted respect justified only by the heavy price tag and the glowing embroidered word that we all covet and crave: Couture. Thoughts?

Enough said - let's take Dior's Fall 2013 Couture collection and break it down to what it really is. Here are, in my opinion, the hits and misses of Raf Simons' third shot at couture for the house of Christian Dior.

 Hits:

Vogue UK describes this collection as one that is "moving away from the idea of this being just a quintessentially French brand," in other words, carefully melting, moulding and reshaping public perception of the stiff, European design house. This generic objective of modernization as a result of globalization could be applied to almost every archaic design house to a certain extent, and because of that, one could easily foresee the aforementioned shift as one with disastrous artistic consequences - resulting in identical collections being churned out from every designer keen to explore something unusual along the lines of African tribes, rural Asian religious influences... and not much else. I held my breath scrolling through the photographs available online, and was very much relieved to see that while Raf Simons' assumed inspiration for this collection was relatively generic, his designs proved to be ingeniously unique, distinct and unlike any collection I've seen before.

From the tight fitted, geometric explosion on the far left to the daringly revealing ensemble on the far right, Simons' utilized a myriad of textures, fabrics and colors, and while skilfully manipulating the opacity of the pieces, fused unexpected combinations together to form quirky, light-hearted ensembles that definitely made me smile. The sleek, futuristic dress on the far left with unique shoulder detailing and the most elegant silhouette ever is a huge winner in my book. Second from the left is a disheveled ensemble that is instantly pulled together by the overruling presence of white (Simons has clearly taken a peek in Rumi's wardrobe), and in the centre is an architectural masterpiece of a button-down gone wrong - something more of a button-side, button-sleeve and button-hem, really! Second from the right is a stacked sorbet-hued confection that looks good enough to eat, and the voluminous pleated cream skirt provides almost enough distraction from an oddly risque bodice.

Another great aspect of Dior's Fall/Winter 2013 Couture presentation was the prominent use and endless reinvention of a classic: tailoring. From double-breasted blazers to belted trench coats to dresses topped with narrow lapels, the art of simple folds and buttons to punctuate fabric was manipulated to great acclaim. I particularly enjoyed the ensemble in the centre; the sexy cut-out, the simple belt and the presence of those gorgeous leather gloves combine to give conservative office-wear an unexpected update a la Simons. 

Oh, the humble drop waist! (Or in this case, the many ways of conjuring waistline illusions.) The fire-engine red dress second from the right looks a bit like peplum, except it feels more like an upside-down wilted poppy in the most beautiful way possible. I would've loved to see the dynamics of that dress in motion at the show, but style.com lets you watch the look being modeled live so that'll have to do for now. Whether obvious like the billowy white dress belted twice on the far left, or a little more subtle like the seemingly spherical waist of the ensemble on the far right, waistline manipulation usually introduces androgyny, but in this case it seems to merely offer fresh, transformed ideas of classic beauty, veering away from the conventional.

While Couture is indirectly celebrated as artistry which occasionally eludes practicality and wearability (take McQueen's works of art, for instance: beautiful but almost impossible to wear on a daily basis), in my opinion, it's important for a collection to also explore simpler, more wearable pieces. I love seeing celebrities' fashion choices for major international events, many of them opting for pieces from Couture collections, so for a collection to be successful not only in the face of the fashion industry but in a more widespread, public context intertwined with the entertainment industry, wearable pieces are key. Most of the pieces I've selected as "hits" are the simpler pieces in the collection, which successfully retain the rich inspiration this collection derives from without overdoing silhouettes, fabrics or contrast. I would absolutely love to see Kelly Rowland working that blue ensemble (centre) on the red carpet, and the dress second from the right looks like it was made for Tilda Swinton.

As I mentioned above, every successful collection needs a couple of truly universal pieces - the traditional long dresses that flatter the woman's form and leave behind any crazy ideas of shapelessness, androgyny or wild theatrical ideas that the designer might have had, and might have executed in the remainder of his collection. Don't get me wrong: I thoroughly enjoyed the more unconventional pieces that Dior had to offer, but in terms of celebrities and wearability, it's rare to see a wildly unconventional ensemble from a Couture collection donned on the red carpet. The five dresses above may be simple in appearance, but each possess subtle characteristics that reflect, albeit less boldly, the many themes of Simons' vision. From the delicate origami cream dress on the far right to the red dress with a sexy overlay (someone call Taylor Swift and make her wear that please), these masterpieces retain the character and life of the collection without going over the top.

Misses:

In every collection, there are always those pieces that just make you think "...Seriously? Come on!" The six images above should serve to explain my first issue with this collection; the fact that the "laid back" attitude reflected in the styling and silhouettes of these pieces went terribly, embarassingly wrong. I don't see how the puffy sleeved blue Teletubbies-esque piece or its grey cropped counterpart can look flattering on anyone. Ever. The awkwardly shaped outer layer over the halloween-striped dress doesn't do anything for me, and neither do the clashing stripes in the ensemble second from the right. Facepalming eternally.

For someone who proved immensely capable of flattering the female form through other pieces in his collection, these pieces are a shock to the system. I can see the creative potential trying to wriggle out into the limelight but failing to get past the swathes of unnecessary, badly-constructed pieces of fabric. This is not modern-cool statement tailoring, this is frumpy and ugly. Sorry not sorry.

 These were pieces that were on the fence for me - I wasn't quite sure if they were total "misses," but they certainly weren't "hits." While debating over whether or not to add a "meh" section between the extremes of "hit" or "miss," I realized the thing all these pieces have in common: they're simply overdone. Many of these pieces have very similar partner pieces in the collection, but these have just been taken two steps TOO far. The piece on the far left had a sexy, futuristic version (which I placed in the "hits" section), but this one looks like an unflattering, messy space suit gone very wrong. The piece second from the left was beautiful in monochrome version (also in the "hits" section), but the blegh print is just too much. The ensemble on the far right looked beautiful in full-length version, but unflatteringly cropped and watermelon-esque in the image above.

These pieces could've been successful if a better fabric was used - the velvety sheen cheapens the entire look of these three outfits.

 These pieces I have no hope for - they're simply worlds away from anything that is sartorially acceptable in my mind and are, quite frankly, beyond repair. Nudity is sexy in small, subtle doses, Raf. And no one would wear that red curtain over their shoulders in public - ever. 

Total thumbs up for the beauty aspect of the show though - the smouldering eyes were gorgeously understated using only bright, metallic accents, and luscious lips were achieved with a beautiful coat that combined rich color and statement shine. I definitely thought Dior's makeup look was pulled off better by the models of colour, though; in my opinion, the brown, copper and gold tones complement darker skin much more than fair skin. 

What did you guys think of Dior's Fall 2013 Couture collection?