Can you smell it? My dude sings a chant that goes, “Fashion Week! Fashion Week! Fashion Week!” My mom suggests I nuorish (not to be confused with nourish) my body with vitamins before I dive into “the arena” and, full disclosure, I keep a notebook of preferred garments that serve as restoratives in case I can’t get dressed. Indeed, the Olympics of Man Repelling are upon us again and a timely inauguration it is.
Today also marks the launch of Raf Simons’ first Ready-to-Wear collection for Christian Dior at Jeffrey New York in ready-to-buy formation. With the welcomed and celebrated shenanigans practically in tow, a hearty nod to Raf by way of Jeffrey’s is precisely the right dose of O-M-G-Fashion for even those unable to participate in the aforementioned shenanigans. (How many ways can I say fashion week without actually saying fashion week?)
The conversation about Raf Simons’s first collection for Dior has felt rather ceaseless but in case you’ve forgotten how thrilling this landing is, here’s a brief refresher.
On a promenade through less-than business casual suiting (including, the neck scarves emblematic of all elegant French women) through an array of escapist party dresses (applicable for celebratory circumstances only) and then into the heart of Simons’s psyche (only a man born and raised on a Belgian farm could truly understand the subtle beauty of pairing a minimalist tank top with a larger-than-life, whimsical full skirt), the man has got an indispensable knack for eliciting emotion.
And though easy to fall in love with the conceptual nature of where Simons obviously plans to take Christian Dior–he has effusively shared his propensity toward minimalism (though noting that “it is not the only one [he] likes”), there is nothing quite like seeing, touching, and feeling the intricacies of his craftsmanship with our own hands to arrive at our respective deductions.
If you can, I’d suggest you head in to Jeffrey and take a gander for yourself. Come on, do it for Fashion Week. The store’s display is set in the same vein as the ad campaign, featuring dynamic open windows (after all, when one screen closes, another one opens, right?). But in the event you’re somewhere else, the slideshow images above demonstrate precisely how opulent, decadent, downright epicurean little slices of this collection are.
And finally, you will also find my very cold frame shuffling through meager snow flakes in what is perhaps a most flawless salute to his eager and simple aesthetic, infused with the kind of details that wholly make his work one of a kind. In the end, it seems Raf‘s real talent rests in his ability to make even a woman so obsessed with looking like a little boy (me) want, nay, need to feel like a bona-fide lady.
Photos by Leandra Medine and Charlotte Fassler. Part 1 in a collaborative series with Christian Dior
