Simply Abu Dhabi XX

1 9 6 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I DIOR MENS AW COLLECTION D IOR HOMME creative director Kris Van Assche has a very particular view of his ior Homme. He's a man in love with dressing up to the point that he'll wear tails to go to the opera at the Palais Garnier – but only to see Pina Bausch, never something as cubic as Swan Lake. And he'd rather skateboard to the venue than front up in a cab, let alone a limo. “It's actually more about exploring contrasts. The tradition of Dior is tailoring, and ever since I've been there I've been bringing in a lot of sportswear elements. When I started on that collection, it was all about clichés like bow ties and tail coats. But inmy head it was about the young guy who would know all these codes but he would go to the opera, say, he would take his girl, so he would need to look cool. He might take her on his bike or go on his skateboard.” So Van Assche’s autumn-winter 2015/16 collection started with an idea of the sartorial with the hyper- formality of the evening tail suit and the dinner suit. He said: “Here, I wanted to bring formality into the world of the technical and utilitarian, to produce a techno-sartorial collection.” A skinny black tie between the tux and the jogging pant that was delivered in black leather perfectly depicted the designer’s implicit faith that there are boys who are missing sartorial formality in their everyday lives. Van Assche pushed that faith to the limit with the tailcoats he showed, but one assumes they were more a stylistic excess to make a point. Truer to his proposal was something like the black leather parka over the bow tie and cummerbund outfit, or the tailored denim suit with a shearling gilet on top. That kind of sporty/sartorial layering is signature Van Assche. Even the most casual denim and shearling looks here were accessorised with a white shirt and tie because his contemporary figure is both romantic