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| Photo via the New York Times |
After a year and half and three fashion
weeks of waiting, Raf Simons has been appointed as creative director for the
house Dior. While this inevitably will bring a sense of relief to investors and
fans of the brand, it marks a new era for the house. Simons’ wildly successful
run at Jil Sander is evidence of his ability to make commercially viable
clothes, but one must beg the question: does Simons have the vision to move the
Dior brand back into the fashion world’s good graces?
Season after season, Bill Gaytten
created perfectly lovely, but uninspiring garments and while we can not expect
anyone to live up to John Galliano’s eccentricity, we can hope for more. Simons,
trained by Antwerp 6 alum Walter Van Beirendonck, has been overwhelmingly
successful at interpreting codes of a pre-existing house as evidenced through
his work at Jil Sander, but it remains to be seen how Simons’ decidedly Belgian
aesthetic will interact with the historical weight of Dior’s patented codes. While
Marc Jacobs and Haider Ackermann were more immediately obvious choices to direct
the house, Simons has the potential to rewrite the aesthetic history of Dior.
In appointing Mr. Simons to
fashion’s most coveted position, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy has taken an
enormous risk, but I expect they will reap an enormous reward. The best fashion
houses survive through innovation
(See: CHANEL, Lanvin) and this appointment promises exactly that.
Simons’ aesthetic seems diametrically opposed to that of Dior, however, it is
an enormous opportunity for the house and for LVMH to reinvigorate a brand that
seemed a bit staid, even under the direction of Galliano. It’s high time for
the fashion world to experience a bit of excitement. Let’s hope Simons
delivers.
