Pre-Fall panorama

The hallowed French house of Christian Dior and art have always had a deep connect. Before he became a couturier, Monsieur Dior was a gallerist exhibiting Picassos in the late 1920s. For the label’s Pre-Fall show, Kim Jones honoured the founder’s legacy on multiple levels — he commissioned Japanese contemporary artist Hajime Sorayama  to create a 39-foot-tall gleaming sculpture of a robot woman. The collection took a departure from Kris Van Assche’s and Hedi Slimane’s skinny silhouette with a new relaxed tailored fits, metallic pieces and a palette of Dior’s signature palette — grey, midnight blue and soft pink. The collection had a futuristic spirit thanks to elements like the metallic buckles of Matthew Williams of Alyx and the Tailleur Oblique, which is designed to wrap the body diagonally with a single button.

Held in a concrete warehouse in Tokyo, the collection by Pierpaolo Piccioli celebrated the house’s codes while lacing it with modernity, intelligence and wit. Always eclipsing high fashion world with his quiet elegance, this time Piccioli was dwelling on the subtleties of Japan, one of them being wabi-sabi (a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection). The Renaissance art inspiration stood out thanks to the bags handcrafted in collaboration with Undercover’s Jun Takahashi, which will be up for grabs at the label’s Tokyo flagship store. All in all, Piccioli married Valentino’s romanticism with the concept of wabi-sabi resulting in stunners like the scarlet dresses welcomed by the fury of red rose petals.

The idea of Burberry family — mother and daughter, father and son — was the focal point in Riccardo Tisci’s Pre-Fall line. Camel, taupe, fawn and honey were the key colours and different variations on the classic trenchcoat. There were car coats, duffle coats, tuxedo jackets, parkas, Harrington jackets, puffer capes and tailored jackets across both menswear and womenswear categories. The TB bag has been reinvented this season to include canvas and leather styles in myriad tones. The overall vibe was sharp and tailored — be it the coatdress or the blazer teamed over a pleated dress. A logo-kissed wrap-shawl stood out so did the silk scarf prints.