Much will be said about the House of Dior over coming months. A lot of the chatter will include talk of its former designer John Galliano. He’s currently before the French courts because of that incident with a verdict on whether he is guilty as accused expected in September. Until then the man and the fashion house will undoubtedly be tied. And that’s probably a fair thing. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know the true extent of the hand he had in the formation of Dior’s next autumn / winter collection, but what we do know is the impact he had on the fashion house’s couture and ready-to-wear lines. To the couture he brought a true mastery of the extravagant, to the ready-to-wear he brought something far subtler but still no less strong as a story.
That story for Christian Dior’s fall 2011 ready-to-wear collection begins with femininity as its foundation and continues with Britishness as its motif. Some may misidentify it as thoroughly English in its application, and in a Victorian sense of England’s appropriation of so many foreign icons it is. But in reality this is a collection that is more a tour-de-force of the British Isles, one that interprets so many of fall 2011′s fashion statements from the perspective of the classics.
And if classic, women’s fashion with a heavy 1950s infusion is your thing, then you’d do well to look over Dior‘s autumn / winter 2011 collection and campaign tie-in. From the fox fur trim as day wear to its use of sheer tulle for the evening, it is autumn / fall 2011′s fashion to a tee. In fact, it’s almost a how-to guide.
You can see all of Dior‘s autumn / fall 2011 advertising campaign by clicking on the thumbnails and browsing through the photo gallery.
Weekend watch: Dior's British romance (26 Jun 2011)
































