Dior Couture Raises the Bar
Seeking inspiration for Dior’s new Fall/Winter ’16 couture collection, head designers Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux pulled from a familiar source: Christian Dior’s 1947 Bar Suit. That silhouette—a close-cut jacket, cinched at the waist, with a flared skirt—so thoroughly ruffled the feathers of the fashion establishment, the then editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar declared it “a revolution,” and new mannequins, to accommodate the cut of the clothes, had to be constructed in its wake. Now, with this collection, the Bar Suit has been made contemporary once more: skirts are full and billowy, tops looser and lighter, jackets deconstructed. The original color palette, of black and white, remains, in all its stark glory. There is just one caveat: gold embroidery appears as an accent on many of the pieces, almost like a revolutionary wink.
