Surfing Collections: Dior Resort

Fashion design is a seasonal business - there is Fall (shown in March) and there is Spring (shown in September). Between the two there are Resort (or Cruise) collections, inter-season or pre-season lines of ready-to-wear. These “pre-collections” function either as a precursor or as a post-script to the real thing - hence their strategic importance. Some designers take advantage of the season to reinterpret their creative vision in a more wearable way; others use the opportunity to reinvent proven past best sellers in new fabrics. Overall these collections are known precisely for their wearability factor which is also why they tend to appear in store the longest . There is a marketing advantage to these pre-collections as well - they give an indication of what fashion buyers like. So while the Fall & Spring collections are still considered as the main event (emphasis on 'event' - these are big, expensive to dos) where designers formulate and cement their aesthetic and branding, much of what they actually sell comes - paradoxically, perhaps - from pre-collections.

The down side? That many more collections for the market to track and for the designers to produce. The fashion cycle has increased its pace, propelled by digital dissimulation and the proliferation of copies (Zara, H&M and their ilk are notorious for getting their designs from conception to the store at lightning speed) and the design houses are left with no recourse but to play along.

With this brief intro we inaugurate a series of tracking down some major players in the Resort game.

Today: Raf Simons for Dior.

Remember the post about layering? Apparently layering has become such a major trend in styling that Simons decided to incorporate it into single garments, like so:

Even when not mixing and matching the collection focused on prints:

Yet while most of the collection was abut prints, there were a couple of stand-out monochromatic pieces as well:

Throughout, the Jil Sander aesthetic - formal rigor, minimal lines, folding - is very much  evident (Simons was Creative Director of the label from 2005-2011) and I have to admit it is all pretty fantastic.

That said, Simons' minimalism is an extreme departure for Dior, long led by John Galiano, whose over the top glam aesthetic can only be described as Simons' polar opposite.