5/12/14

Dior and I

Personally, I hold high fashion is pretty low esteem. This 2014 Seattle International Film Festival documentary from France is directed by Frédéric Tcheng. You may have forgotten when Raf Simons from Belgium was hired to replace disgraced John Galliano at Dior. That in itself was exciting to the fashionistas, but the fact that he only had eight weeks to create his first collection (a process that normally takes up to five months), shows us how much pressure was on.

This is more about the process of creating a show than it is about creating high fashion, e.g., check out those flower-covered walls! I found myself admiring the women behind the scenes who make it happen. At one point they have to use spray paint to make a jacket black so our designer can see how it would look made from black fabric. During the hectic last days before the show, these amazing women get home at 2:00 AM, only to get up at 5:00 AM and go right back to work.

Evidently Raf Simons is notoriously camera shy. The Paris Match wanted a photo shoot with him and six models that would be similar to the one they shot with Galliano which became an issue cover. When Simons asked if this new one would be a cover photo, the photographer said they never promise because "someone might die and that always becomes the cover." Simons laughingly offered to jump out a window.

Of course it's always fun to look for famous faces during the fashion show itself, but I was so distracted by the models, who looked like a line-up of gawky giraffes, complete with hideous makeup and the goofy clothes they had to wear, that I didn't get much enjoyment from people-watching. But then again, you already know how I feel about high fashion...