Paris Fashion Week: Dior’s statuesque models cut a dash as well-tailored suits make a comeback
Elegant designs and motionless models, standing on a moving conveyor-belt catwalk, catch the eye at show of Kim Jones, Dior Homme’s creative director
Dior set out to redefine 21st-century tailoring on Friday in a show which summed up a men’s Paris Fashion Week in which the suit has made a surprising comeback.
British-born designer Kim Jones, creative director of Dior Homme, drew inspiration from the French capital’s heroic statuary to suggest that there was no better armour for the modern man than well-cut clothes.
For me the suit and the tailored jacket are the key things which say Dior. It is elegance, tailoring and couture
His spectacular show in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower had models standing still, just like statues, on a moving conveyor belt catwalk.
The mesmerising effect made it look as if they were gliding or skateboarding to a techno disco beat.
Jones, in only his second Paris show for the mythical French label since leaving Louis Vuitton, sent out a sleek, dark-hued riposte to the oversized trend that has dominated men’s fashion for several seasons.
Big on blacks, greys and burnished silky browns, his suits and trousers were cut close to the body, with some given added panache with long scarfs worn like the sashes so beloved of 17th-century cavaliers.
Stylised utility vests worn over suits like bulletproof jackets gave some of his models the air of postmodern hussars.