Kris Van Assche, who shuttered his 10-year-old signature label last year, poured a lot of himself into Dior Homme’s fall collection.
This is a good thing: His penchant for sporty and streetwear touches gave the collection a youthful spunk. The set of neon quarter pipes and a pummeling Nitzer Ebb soundtrack announced Van Assche’s dual themes of Nineties skateboard culture and Eighties New Wave.
“I didn’t want the collection to be at all precious or uptight,” he said before the show, showing off borderline messy thread embroideries on suits and jeans that were meant to have that DIY look.
The tailoring, however, was tightly controlled — the two-button jackets slim through the arms and waist, and set off with pants that were either slim and tapered or radically wide like the ones ravers would wear.
The outerwear was outstanding and diverse, ranging from handsome, lightly quilted topcoats to a camel coat detailed like a perfecto. Worker-style jackets and parkas got the luxury treatment, done in lustrous cashmere, but with rugged details inside like storm taping and buffalo plaid linings. Checkered fabrics — seen across the European collections — were also used for belted coats and shirts galore.
While the collection was more “him” than ever, Van Assche said Mr. Dior is never far from his mind, or the clothes. The single black hoodie in the show bore a black-and-white rose — one of the founder’s fetish flowers — and his signature, which resembles an electrocardiogram. New Wave, indeed.
