To create his 2016 haute couture collection, Raf Simons started with a few key concepts: purity, innocence, opulence, and decadence. In this mid-season period, Dior’s couture season is unfolding along the lines of the great Flemish masters of the arts. These masters came from Anvers, former region of the Lower Countries or what is today called the Netherlands. By bringing them together with the master artisans of French haute couture, Raf Simons succeeded in his tricky synthesis of hands-on techniques and art majeur. The result is astounding: somewhere between ecclesiastical reservation, pastoral flight, and Ibiza decadence, the artist brings to light a new Dior woman, free and more stylish than ever.
Open, closed, exposed, the body appears more alive than ever. In this corolla dress, Christian Dior’s female flowers take on a whole new meaning. Lit up with the lights of Hieronymous Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”, the modernity of femininity according to Raf Simons is hidden within. Artistic references including pointillism all come to beautify the couture collection 2016’s corolla dress. Like Dior’s usual flowers, he blurs traditions in an Impressionistic vein with dresses whose proportions are straight out of the 19th century. This piece is highly desirable, because yes, Raf Simons has been able to transform the past to give meaning to the present.
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