Hong Kong show marks new direction for Dior Homme, creative director says
After nine years in the job, Kris van Assche feels reinvigorated by decision to put his own-name fashion line on hold and infuse more of himself into Dior’s menswear collections
Even casual observers of high fashion will have a sense of the chaos that is pervading the industry at the moment. Competition is stiff, sales are slowing, and big-league creative directors have departed some major fashion houses: Alber Elbaz left Lanvin, Alexander Wang left Balenciaga, Francisco Costa quit Calvin Klein, Hedi Slimane left Saint Laurent and Raf Simons quit Christian Dior.
Dior Homme creative director Kris van Assche is staying right where he is, though. Simons’ departure from the fashion house, after three-and-a-half years in which he helped restore order following John Galliano’s exit, left van Assche as the star name at Dior. Not that he is resting on his laurels. Five days into a recent trip to Hong Kong, the workaholic has barely seen anything of the city. Instead, he has shuttled between his hotel in Central and Shaw Studios in Tseung Kwan O, casting models and doing fittings for a catwalk show, one of Dior’s biggest events of 2016.
“The only time I saw the pool was while having lunch,” van Assche says as he sits down for an interview at his hotel on the morning of the show last month. “How could I be serene about tonight if I hadn’t been fully involved? I mean that’s not even imaginable.”
The Hong Kong show, called “The Art of Falling Apart”, was the fourth Dior Homme presentation in Asia; previous editions were held in China’s top cities. Why did it take this long to come to Hong Kong?