Dior Spring Summer 2016 Ready to Wear Collection Review

Review | Collection

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Enter through a flowered landslide of blue delphiniums in the courtyard of Carrée du Louvre, and you reach a white expanse that is Dior’s runway for unveiling its new collection. Dior Spring Summer 2016 Ready-to-Wear collection at Paris Fashion Week was a simplistic and modern.

Stripping away the extraneous three-dimensional flowers and poofy skirts that we usually see in Dior’s couture collections, this year’s ready-to-wear collection features plain and crisp silhouettes. Minimalism was also in the color palette. The collection comprised mostly all-white outfits, some with black, chocolate and eggshell thrown in. The last few pieces made a use of pastels like pink, sky blue and sapphire.

“I wanted the collection to have a purity to it,” Raf Simons said about the collection. “To simplify and concentrate on a line that expressed an idea of femininity, fragility and sensitivity without sacrificing strength and impact.”

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Rihanna, wearing a pale-pink fur-sleeved jacket from Dior Fall 2015 Couture collection sat in the front row (frow).

“I feel like doing something calm, calm and beautiful and sensitive and romantic.”

The collection was certainly pure. The hemlines were anything but -reminding us of the edges of Victorian lace. Fitting – as the shorts were inspired by Victorian underwear. Other pieces included sheer dresses, textured overcoats, crop tops, androgynous Bar-jackets, A-line skirts and midi-skirts.

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The collection focused on the functional needs of a modern woman. Perhaps my favorite part were the shoes – thick ankle straps over pointy-toe heels. And the necklaces – modern cameos-of sort within Victorian-inspired inlays and tied around the neck with ribbons like a choker.

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The Verdict

Does the collection set the tone for modernist fashion? Maybe not. Fashion, like anything else, is not one way or the other – either too lavish or too stark. It’s a balance that is functional while being aesthetic. Of course, black and white are everlastingly beautiful, but minimalism doesn’t leave much room for flattering silhouettes. Because as Christian Dior said, “A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture – designed to enhance the proportions of the female body.” Maybe we’ll still wear it. Because it’s Dior, after all!

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Dior Spring Summer 2016 Ready to Wear Collection at Paris Fashion Week: Gallery

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