Christian Dior Couture Paris 2013 A/W

There has been a lot of talk in the fashion press about the future for couture, with the money moving from Russia to the Far East and with the ever present pressure to promote a brand and be in the spotlight rather in the more exclusive and subtle shadow. For me this shift is epitomised by Raf Simons,  for whom this collection’s buzz word ‘Freedom’ meant carte blanche for a free for all of styles and cultural references that was not couture in the classic sense.  Some people will applaud this but not me.  There were some really unredeemable dresses shown: the full fur one particularly stands out, as does the full length white dress which looks like an undergraduate end of term effort. For all his avowed homage to the house of Dior, I fail to see the understanding of its history, quality or signature class. The staging against the slide show of stills from the collection may have been interesting, but I really didn’t like the crop of models they used for this show at all, and it makes the ‘firing’ of Jourdan Dunn for her unacceptable bra size seem all the more odd. I didn’t like the long gloves either, nor the one earring look; is this Paris’s best effort for the runway?

Source: Style.com