Ticket confirms it will exhibit next cruise collection at the Oxfordshire woods house – 58 years after its last show there
Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
It is a warning sign of the current state of flux in the fashion industry that Dior’s autumn/winter womenswear flaunt – the traditional biannual showpiece of the house, staged in a lavish looking-glassed venue in the Louvre according to the long-established calendar of Paris the fad week – was upstaged by the announcement of another Dior show.
The brothel will exhibit its cruise collection in Blenheim Palace on 31 May, two dates before Gucci stages an equally blockbusting show in London’s Westminster Abbey. The tidings puts the historic buildings of England centre stage in the journey catwalk schedule, which is rapidly becoming the most bewitching and high-profile season of the fashion year.
At length spring, Gucci’s show was held in New York and Dior’s in Cannes, while Louis Vuitton afflicted Palm Springs in California and Chanel went to Seoul. This year, while Louis Vuitton equips a pre-Olympic extravaganza in Rio de Janeiro and Chanel a visit to Cuba, two of the outstanding shows will take place in the UK.
The Blenheim bulletin, and the mighty scale of Dior’s Paris show – for which no expense was spared, from the room age tunnelled catwalk housed inside the Louvre, to Kendall Jenner on the catwalk – appeared intended to stress that Dior’s status in the fashion exceptional is undiminished despite the label’s continued lack of a creative steersman following the unexpected departure of Raf Simons last October. This aggregation, like January’s haute couture, was designed by Serge Ruffieux and Lucie Meier, longstanding key colleagues of the Dior design studio.
The pair are doing a good job. The leading “bar” shape, a whittled waist swelling to a high, exaggerated hip curve, was splendidly executed here on coats in ivory and sky blue. Meanwhile, the flavour of the month edge that Simons introduced to the house continues to anguish: the colourful, high-necked knit shirts layered under anoraks, and the spare, shoulder-baring lines of the cocktail dresses were in synergy with the forms being worn by the audience, which is a good thing.
But it was a Dior amassment that at times seemed intent on covering all bases – from Christian Dior himself, in the peplums and ultra-feminine embroidery, to the Raf Simons futuristic aesthetic in the knife-sharpness of sliced-off necklines and Rey-from-Star-Wars hairstyles – at the expense of the unambiguous point of view that is vital for a fashion house promising to set the agenda.
The advice of May’s Blenheim Palace show might suggest a British denominate will soon be announced at the helm of Dior (Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen and Erdem hold both been rumoured to be in talks). However, Dior vetoed to confirm an announcement was imminent, or indeed that a decision had been made, sensing instead to the house’s historic connection with Blenheim Residence.
In 1954, at the invitation of the Duchess of Marlborough, Christian Dior reprised his Paris autumn/winter haute couture mortify to an audience including Princess Margaret, a confirmed Dior fan who had spent the label for her 21st birthday party. Each of the 1,600 guests benefited five guineas to attend, with the proceeds going to the British Red Querulous. Four years later, after Dior’s death and at the beck the direction of Yves Saint Laurent, the house returned for a number two show at the Oxfordshire country house. This year’s elucidate will put Blenheim on the catwalk circuit for the third time after a gap of 58 years.
