Who will be Dior’s new artistic director?

As a part 2 to the previous article on John Galliano, let’s take a look at the question that’s got the fashion realm begging for an answer since the arrival of the vacancy as artistic director for Dior : who will be next ? Who will embody the Dior essence while providing their own completing touch, with majestic and emotionally rich black dresses ?

The future of the LBD @ Dior

Several names have come up concerning who the next artistic director for the house of Dior might be, including those of Riccardo Tisci, artistic director at Givenchy, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton or even Haider Ackermann, french designer with Colombian roots. It’s quite the surprise for many among Dior who felt that Azzadine Alaïa would be the next to design for the couture house, when the later declined the offer. Apparently the position appeals very little to him and he claims not to be interested (further reading here). You’ll understand his choice of not integrating the maison Dior however if I tell you that Alaïa is one of the fashion scene’s greatest advocate in terms of wishing for a revolution, a radical change in the fashion system, in order to slow the frenzied rhythm of collections and the incessantly more pressurized demands.. in short all that Dior embodies to perfection. And I like how honest he is, and gutty way of not dicing his words (read here) in addition to his very human personality. Few in the industry have the guts (with reason) to speak their mind. Anyways, to get back to our LBDs, I will leave you with a few very different models from the four designers aforementioned of the AW 2012 Collection :   Haider Ackerman’s black dresses, between austerity and grace, all in satin and washed silk, are complex, with straps, extra wide black crocodile belts, draping and overlapping. The result is precious, magic even. On Givenchy‘s side, Riccardo Tisci mixes voyeurism, manipulated black panther motifs, bare legs in translucent veils and even a basque as a replacement miniskirt; we understand how the designer referred to the obscure object of desire. In all, it was like watching an army of enchantresses wearing baseball jackets… try and imagine what Tisci’s dark and seductive style would bring to Dior. As for Lanvin, Alber Elbaz delighted our hungry eyes with black lace dresses, black knit dresses, black prints, original asymmetry… can’t say he suffered from writer’s, well, stylist’s block. And finally, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton is becoming more and more into of a global, narrative artistic director. He enjoys playing with fashion codes and ionizing on taboo questions such as wealth and power. From what we can see looking at these models dressed as maids, Jacobs take pleasure in imagining these women as representatives of what the whole fashion system is a slave of : Lord Money. Little Peter Pan collar on a semi-long sensible and classic black dress with feather duster suggesting your average chamber maid and contrast with the cuff-bracelet linked to the croc bag, latch and little mask worn as a head band, lizard cloves and and laced boots…

So, in your opinion, who will be the next at Dior ?

Who will design the Dior black dresses ?

Tags: A/W 2012, A/W Givenchy, A/W Haider Ackerman, A/W Lanvin, A/W Louis Vuitton 2012, Alber Elbaz, Azzadine Alaïa, black basque, black coktail dress, black crocodile belt, black deconstructed dress, black knit dress, black overlapping dress, black satin dress, black translucent veils, black washed silk, Camille Miceli, Christian Dior, Dior, Givenchy, Haider Ackerman, John Galliano, Lanvin, LBD, little black dress, long black dress, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Riccardo Tisci, short black dress

This entry was posted on June 28, 2011 at June 28, 2011 and is filed under Designers & Stylists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.