Dior Cruise 2016 Show at the home of Pierre Cardin
Le Palais Bulles Théoule-sur-Mer near Cannes
With shape one of the essential ingredients of fashion, Raf Simons and Dior sent home an unforgettable message for the cruise 2016 season, parading an architectural, yet frothy collection at Pierre Cardin’s otherworldly Bubble Palace, whose interlocking spheres cling to the rocky hills above the Bay of Cannes.
“Look at this view. The most amazing place in the south of France,” Simons said during a terrace preview. “I find this architecture exceptional,” Simons said. “I find it very young, feminine and playful.”
Le Palais Bulles: A utopian project that encompasses earth, sky and sea, where the future is built organically from the forms and architecture of the past. In this Collection Croisiére, Raf Simons, Artistic Director of Christian Dior, looks to the landscape and memory of the South of France.
Gaining inspiration from the colors, textures and light of the natural world of the Cote d’Azur, together with the style of the people who have inhabited it, the designer draws on tradition and technique to realize clothing for today. In so doing, Le Palais Bulles (Bubble Palace) becomes a metaphor for the approach to the collection overall.
I wanted an idea of freedom, playfulness and individuality to come to the fore in this collection, especially in consideration of the Dior archive,” explains Raf Simons. “It is not a heavy concept; it is light and young and there is a literal lightening of this clothing to make it fresh."
"Much of the design architecture comes from Mr Dior’s manteaux, his coats. But the heavy fabric is stripped away, the scale is played with and elements of their style are ‘collaged’ into other forms and garments.”
“We tried to make it very, very light, and much younger, and therefore also more futurist and modernist.”
With actresses Marion Cotillard, Dakota Fanning and Zoe Kravitz among front-row guests at the finale evening show, the Dior event seemed an unofficial curtain-raiser for the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival.
Miroslava Duma in the front row Photo by Stephane Feugere/wwd.com
After the evening show, guests crowded on to the terraces for cocktails and a fireworks display.
Spectacular Fireworks After the Show
Situated on the cliffs of Théoule-sur-Mer, the venue for the show – Le Palais Bulles – is by the Hungarian architect Antti Lovag. Fascinated by Inuit and early human dwellings that were spherical in shape, the architect began this masterwork in 1975, commissioned by Pierre Bernard. Bernard’s house came into being in 1984; by the time of his death in 1992 he requested in his last will that work on the house continue under its new owner. That new owner was and still is Pierre Cardin, the great couturier and former Head of Atelier Tailleur to Mr Christian Dior. With his immense foresight and patronage the house has flourished.
Image Sources: Christian Dior.com vogue.com/Jason Llyod-Evans style.com wwd.com/Stephane Feugere Reuters/Benoit Tessier
Text Sources: Christian Dior.com wwd.com/Miles Socha
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