Dior Homme Men's SS2011 Paris

[Fade to Black]

Hedi is a photographer. hedislimane.com

Chris is doing a much better job at Dior than with his own label. He isn't the kind of visionary creative enough to spread his ideas at more than one place and still maintain a sense of simultaneous momentum.

[snafu]

This is a good balance between what is happening in current menswear for the past few years and what dior homme has always been.
Iv always been biased to dior, but this seems to be a good mix of progressive design and traditional garments, colour pallete, silhoutte, are all easy to wear without being dull. This grabs me more than anything else spewed out this season.
Cant say im a fan of KVA but i might start going back into the dior botiques and picking up a few pieces.

[SHYE_POSER]

Spot on dicky boy! I always appreciated what Hedi had done in the past (we must remember it was the past! His work was very of the moment also) But it wasn't really for me.
Although this collection, i really like and can see myself wearing a few of these pieces. It has a nice soft elegance to it.
One of my favourite collections thus far...SHOCK HORROR.

[Faust]

Are we looking at the same show? This so incredibly derivative - there is not a single unique, interesting, or even his own idea. They should shut up shop, honestly, or hire someone talented. And as much as the Paris fashion crew is willing to suffer in this unbearable heat in layers of black, I beg to differ.

[Avantster]

Curious, but what exactly does it stand for?

Sleek, luxurious, French design house - think tailored elegance married with youthful insouciance, garments with minimal details in sumptuous demi couture fabrics (statements like this might be commonplace todays market but Hedi was the one who brought it to the forefront of menswear fashion). Hedi's collections at YSL Rive Gauche and his first few at Dior Homme (Solitaire, Red) are excellent examples before he moved into his rock phase.

But yeah, KVA is definitely looking back at DH SS '02.

[Enaml]

I'm on the fence about this one. Look at it one way, I completely agree with Faust: it is indeed derivative. At the same time though, the pieces do indeed look nice and are presented well. Not that it's saying much, but I've noticed quite a bit of improvement in KVA in DH in the past few collections. Maybe throw in some originality and he could auctually live up to hedi. Maybe.

[mass]

this blows so hard. the cuts are really awkward. the sleeveless tops aren't enough to remind me of red.

[casem]

I'm liking this the more I look at it. The volume is done well and there's a serenity and ease to this that works much better than when KVA tries too hard. Of course it's lacking that excitement, or "special sauce" that Hedi had, but for KVA this is one of his best at Dior.

[cooldudeguy3000]

A little colour would'nt hurt Kriss...

[xeraphim]

A little colour would'nt hurt Kriss...

the last time he did colour, it hurt pretty badly indeed.

[Heirloom]

we said little colour, not nuclear colour.

[mmmmrk]

word is that Atelier will be stocking DH for SS11.

[tricotineacetat]

word is that Atelier will be stocking DH for SS11.

Funny thought they'd pick up Dior now, whereas they'd leave it untouched during the Hedi Slimane era. Maybe in an attempt to pick up a less elitist customer? They would need to have quite a good choice of classic Dior staples (jeans, trainers) to make it work - or else I don't see why their educated customer would pick up from Kris van Assche's runway collections while they have all the choice in the world to pick up more original pieces from the other designers they are representing.

[Faust]

They probably weren't big enough in the Hedi day. The late Bagutta already stocked DH in SoHo. And lol at "an attempt to pick up a less elitist customer."

[tricotineacetat]

And lol at "an attempt to pick up a less elitist customer."

Well, that at least seems to be what the bigger fashion houses themselves are doing - Trying to make the ocassional shopper come back to the stores. Everybody seems to rely on the deep-pocketed tourist, but those customers are few and they are not particularly reliable when it comes to spending their money faithfully with one store from season to season - it could be in Paris, it could be in London or New York... or wherever else they fly to.