At Dior and Saint Laurent, a throwback to 1960s
PARIS—Two fashion heavyweights looked back to the 1960s at Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday, with Christian Dior paying homage to the revolutionary “Miss Dior” line and Saint Laurent building a collection around the transparent sheer outfits beloved of its founder.
The see-through dress has been a celebrity fashion staple over the past year, and Saint Laurent took it to the extreme with extensive use of materials “like mist,” according to the show notes.
Anthony Vaccarello, who has directed the French house since 2016, revisited one of Yves Saint Laurent’s obsessions: “minimizing the distance between fabric and skin.”
Guests including Kate Moss and K-pop megastar Jisoo were treated to waves of chiffon, lace and tulle, offering a more risqué version of the luxury nightwear of recent seasons.
Simon Longland, director of buying for London department store Harrods, described it as “bursting with juxtaposition.”
‘Miss Dior’ reborn
“The silhouette, cut and styling were in large part ladylike and conservative in their femininity—think pencil skirts, pussy bow blouses and delicate hosiery—(but) delivered in fabrications that were mostly sheer and slinky,” he said.Earlier, a starry audience, including Jennifer Lawrence and Natalie Portman, saw a very different ode to the past at Christian Dior.
Its collection was almost entirely monochrome and beige—a heady mix of nouveau riche fantasy, from gabardine to the little white dress, via tweed and more urban denim and leopard-print styles.
It harked back to the launch of the “Miss Dior” line in 1968, when a daring new vision of femininity emerged for newly liberated women.
It was named after the founder’s sister, Catherine Dior, a resistance hero who suffered a traumatic period in a Nazi concentration camp. —AFP
