Beginning as a low-key preview (timed to hit stores months before the catwalk collection), the concept of a Pre-Fall collection has morphed into its own phenomenon – prompting designers to conceive unconventional lookbook images, pre-empt the new faces for the coming season, and secure interest in their main catwalk offering just two months later.

Following in the footsteps of the womenswear market, Dior Homme has unveiled a concisely-edited capsule collection for 2012, leading the recent surge of menswear labels who have adopted this mid-season trend. Kris Van Assche has honed the label’s keystone offerings and made them his own, adding lightness and fluid volume to sportwear and tailoring. Interpreting classic wardrobe staples like the zip blouson, the trench, the macintosh and the white chemise, Van Assche lends a sense of unfinished elegance – whether it be the selvedge edge along a blazer lapel or precise leather inserts adding quiet luxury to a raglan-sleeved coat. A white cotton t-shirt finished with shirt sleeves epitomises the designer’s grasp of simple sophistication in menswear.

Experience the collection images featuring Timothy Kelleher and Caleb Trent by Julia Hetta below.

www.diorhomme.com

Kris Van Assche has turned an about face at the helm of Dior Homme – breathing a light, poetic air into the house’s starched formality. Honing this fresh approach to menswear through a raw, youthful lens is fellow Belgian Willy Vanderperre, who has developed the special project ‘The time I had some time alone’ with Kris Van Assche as an exciting inauguration to Dior Homme’s new generation media strategy.

Featuring Danish model Victor Nylander writhing atop sisal matting in deconstructed suiting looks from the Spring Summer 2011 season, the short video cuts severely through raw urban atmospheres, scenes of Victor bouncing a basketball or a birds eye view on a skateboard.

The contrast of raw finishes and polished silhouettes within Dior Homme’s aesthetic is artfully reflected by Vanderperre, both through the choice of sombre environments and the casting of the house’s pale, Nordic heir to the campaign engaging in such All-American pursuits as basketball and skating. Vanderperre’s idealised vision of youth culture and masculinity that carries through his work with Raf Simons is inherent throughout the film.

‘The time I had some time alone’ film and series of eight photographs has been offered by Dior for download and distribution via blogs and the fashion websites of selected media, for a viral effect that will be echoed in a series of selected print media insertions from January 17th, 2011.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QH2R70Fn58[/youtube]

Like a glorious pillar of light the central white monument of Kris Van Assche’s Dior Homme show for Spring Summer 2011 stood alone in the cavernous expanse of the Halle Freyssinet yesterday, beckoning guests from afar with a totemic gravity. After iced tea and pleasantries, all were seated around it’s perimeter and the plastic shields rolled away from the freshly painted runway.

The models began their walk from inside the cylindrical frame as faint silhouettes against the fabric, emerging one by one into the blinding white arena. Returning to the key motifs of the past two seasons, Kris updated the robed coats and sleeveless tunics of his recent oeuvre into light, flowing fabrics that draped and cut away from the body. Again dressed in a pure palette of black, white, icy grey and beige the Dior Homme man truly transcended geography -with Kris’s influence of North African robes equally as evident as the traditions of Dior tailoring, and the predominantly South American casting now scattered with Eurasian blood.

Entitled “Lessness”, the collection spoke little of the tricky technique and embellishment that has marked Kris’ earlier work – it spoke a more simple poetry of motion and emotion. Patch-pockets and epaulettes were a common thread through gilets and trenches – rendered in suede, heavy cotton and fine wools. Outerwear hung long and loose, squaring off a strong shoulder, often with contrast piping that floated inside linings or highlighted collars and lapels. A knit cummerbund was slung around the hips of several looks, splitting the silhouette with a casual, luxe formality. And the shoes held their own lightness, with a trompe l’oeil effect hiding a canvas boot caged (like a sock) under a laced gladiator sandal.

Kris Van Assche has set a new benchmark of late, with his razor sharp execution and emotional minimalism igniting a sophisticated new ideology at Dior. This season proves a steady evolution, one that has potential to rise much further – for a new romance that bridges classic French codes and Belgian darkness with the savoir-faire of a world traveller.

Via Nowness.com, we present a new fashion film for Kris Van Assche’s Dior Homme Fall Winter 2010 collection.

The short piece is directed by Sharif Hamza and styled by Dazed & Confused’s Robbie Spencer, and takes place in a stark corridor space, with a white panelled ceiling and mysterious dark doorway. Models walk a solemn procession through the bright passage, offering dark glances that seem both solemn and sensual – coupled with a sense of urgency. The fluid layers of the garments undulate as the boys march the corridor, with the luxurious cashmere, polished cotton and raw-edge silks of coats, shirts and ties providing textural nuances that appear rich against the cold backdrop. Watch the video here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjLhGwNOP6k[/youtube]

Read the interview with Kris below, as he discusses the collection and the balance of managing two labels:

Nowness: What were your inspirations for fall 2010?

Kris Van Assche: The first thing that I told my team at the beginning of September was that I wanted to make military coats, but I wanted them to be very light. Usually when you find these old coats they are so stiff they can stand up by themselves. I wanted them to be comfortable and soft, in between a military blanket and a coat. It’s this idea of comfort clothing.

N: How does comfort square with military uniform though?

KVA: For me military influences are always in the back of my head because I want the result to be masculine. Obviously I’m working on a luxury product and I want to use these great materials, but I’m not really into the trashy mood of fashion, it’s not my thing. It should never look pretentious or precious. My influences come from very different directions. I was in India in August and that’s where the collection’s color palette came from. All the men there wear these really toned-down, dusty colors so the idea of wearing a coat as a blanket is linked directly to India. But when you get closer to a show it is important that you get away from the initial inspiration, in case you make it look too historical.

N: There’s a really strong narrative between your spring and fall collections. Were you consciously evolving the aesthetic from last season?

KVA: Well, last spring for me was a turning point. I found a collection that feels right for me at Dior and for fashion today. But I was very scared about the reaction because it was personal and it wasn’t exactly what the house was expecting. But their reactions were really good and it encouraged me to do winter with that same idea of comfort, luxury, simplicity and detailing. It’s something I am very much at ease with. Much more so than with sequins!

N: Where do you draw the line between your work for Kris Van Assche and your work for Dior?

KVA: From day one it was clear to me that at Dior we have an in-house atelier, and I should benefit from working with an atelier of luxury and craftsmanship––something I obviously don’t have with my personal team. At the beginning [Dior] was much more theatrical than me, much more than how it’s ended up being now. Now it’s become a Belgian view on luxury, whereas my label is a Belgian view on creativity. Both of them can cohabit now.

N: What is your take on Dior as a larger entity—are you ever inspired by the women’s collections?

KVA: Dior Homme is totally separate from the women’s. We’re even in different buildings. It’s been like this since day one and it is also the strength of the house.

N: You created an art zine last year, Londerzeel. Are you planning any more exhibitions or art publications?

KVA: Not in the near future. What I enjoyed so much about Londerzeel was that it made me meet really interesting people. But at one point I was creating six collections a year as well as an artistic exhibition. I mean, that together with the economic crisis… it was too much. When there’s something interesting coming along then we go for it. I had a photo project withSarah Moon [for Dior Homme] that I really enjoyed. And that’s obviously something I will continue to do.

N: Do you have a favorite artist at the moment?

KVA: There is Andrea Mastrovito, an Italian artist who I worked with on my tiny little campaign for my own label. He is the most poetic person I’ve ever met in my whole life. I like [photographer] Jeff Burton a lot. I’m always looking for those kinds of people.

N: Is there a muse or celebrity that sums up Dior Homme fall 2010?

KVA: Some people have these big muses, but I don’t. But I really would love to dress Johnny Depp, if I had to choose one. That’s probably more because he’s not into fashion––[it would be] a huge challenge and I really like his universe. But I don’t have pictures of one person hanging up on my inspiration board. Each time I work on a piece, whether it be from Dior or my own label, I always imagine someone in it––it can be me, it can be a person in my team, it can be an 18-year-old or a 45-year-old.

N: What are your wardrobe staples for spring?

KVA: I’m actually quite happy in the Dior spring collection. The unfinished borders, the raw seams, I’m wearing quite a lot of those. I mix them up with my own label. It’s really a point where I’m at ease with both of them so I don’t think about them anymore.

Both video and interview from Nowness.com

The Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy was transformed into a blacked out amphitheatre for the Dior Homme show on Saturday afternoon, its floor a gravel pit encircled and intersected by an inlaid wooden runway. A harsh contrast to last season’s bright, airy setting in the Carreau du Temple, the Fall Winter 2010 presentation was blanketed in a bleak darkness, with an industrial “halo” of Thierry Dreyfus‘s lighting rigs looming above the arena.

Entitled “Coal”, the show was an inspired study of the monochrome, and Kris Van Assche worked in total looks of black, ecru, grey marle and charcoal. On a base of crisp collared shirting and cuffed trousers in either pleated volumes or straight legs, Kris showed an extensive range of luxurious jackets and coats in many different shapes but unified in their cashmere, leather and wool fabrications with a languid fluidity.

Peak collared trenches and pea coats ended with unexpectedly pointed hems, blazers wrapped around the chest and continued into scarves, and a dinner jacket was given a third lapel in contrasting fabric. Self-striped silks and cottons created a textural highlight in more formal pieces, and flashes of silver came stitched into shoulder seams, on tie stripes and from long zippers on hooded coats and blousons.

Almost bare of accessories, the looks were worn with a low dress shoe, sometimes laced with a monkstrap over, and several floor-length coats swept aside at the waist to reveal a leather bag hooked to a belt loop (seemingly keeping a Bible safe).

Choosing Parisian technicians Mode F to develop his soundtrack for both the Dior and Kris Van Assche shows this season, Kris was able to engage personally in the process through their intuitive methods, to create the pulsing power beats of both his shows (listen in the video below). Odile Gilbert gave the models messy, textured hair – adding a boyish charm to the heavy, masculine collection – and Aaron de Mey delivered with clean, simple Dior makeup.

Taking the helm in the wake of a revolution at Dior, Kris has proven himself – creating the world of an intelligent and contemporary gentleman – a modern traveller. The slick production was a testament to the house and to Kris’s ongoing realisation of their vision, subverting their classic codes to redeliver fashionable, elegant garments in unexpected, luxurious ways.

Show Details:

MUSIC: MODE F

PRODUCTION: EYESIGHT

HAIR: Odile Gilbert

MAKEUP: Aaron de Mey

A#7 curator Kris Van Assche muses on the topic of collaboration, with particular reference to Londerzeel, the experimental zine the designer has founded with friend, gallerist Barbara Polla. This feature was orignally published in AnOther Man issue 9, Autumn/Winter 2009.

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In his collaboration with artists, Dior Homme’s artistic director Kris Van Assche has found inspiration for his collections and the material for Londerzeel, a beautifully printed, open-ended experimental zine. The project, the result of the deep bond and mutual respect between Van Assche and gallerist Barbara Polla, presents the work of many artists and photographers that have informed his recent designs.

“Collaboration is vital, essential for me. It is truly stimultating to collaborate with artists from all horizons – Wim Mertens’s music, Jeff Burton’s or Nan Goldin’s photographs, Zoe Cassavete’s films. My collections grow richer from each experience, because my vision becomes wider, more generous. I met Barbara Polla when she was invited by a mutual friend to the second Kris Van Assche show. Afterwards, she came to see me backstage and talked to me straight away about a project. She’s unique and in a class of her own. Her freedom to be herself is outstanding – her whole life is organised around her wishes. She makes her dreams come true through persistance and unshakeable willpower. She is radiant and holds a special place in the heart of contemporary artists – she’s not your typical gallery owner, she’s very close to her artists and very kind. Only Barbara knows how to combine rigour and outrageousness in order to create something new, whether it be an exhibition, a cosmetics line or a magazine. I was surprised when she told me she wanted to write a book about me. It has been a strange experience and in fact I’m still not entirely sure I’m at ease with there being a book about me!

It was at Barbara’s gallery Analix Forever that I met collaborator Andrea Mastrovito. I was immediately drawn in by the delicacy and expressiveness of his drawings, as well as their poetry. His world is exuberant and passionate – I’m touched by the work he has done for me; he’s the greatest poet I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet. And even though fundamentally we’re incredibly different, we have a strong connection between us. Two of my favourite images of his in Londerzeel follow each other, involving Andrea tearing a botanical encyclopaedia in order to ‘replant’ flowers. It’s an idea that meets with my world and my clothes.

Londerzeel is named after the town I come from. The town’s banality made me feel different at such a young age. It’s an ordinary place, neither beautiful or ugly, with people passionate about football and full of goodwill. I can’t say I led a fulfilling life there as a teenager, but it is the place where the people I love live. The zine is a project with complete freedom – I’m the artistic director and Barbara is the managing editor. In Londerzeel I wanted to collect projects that were not related to fashion. It is a way for me to tell the same story, to convey the same aesthetics but using other means, other mediums. We are working on a follow-up but we won’t set ourselves a deadline – when we have something to tell there will be another issue.”

Interview Dean Mayo Davies

www.krisvanassche.com

www.analix-forever.com

American photographer Nan Goldin is a woman whose sincerity, sensitivity and inquisitive nature allows for honest and intimate moments to be captured by her lens. Her images are the result of an unwavering vision and focus on intense human emotion, rendering a sense of realism to the theatrical.

As a long time collaborator with Kris Van Assche, it was a natural step that Nan contributed her images to A#7, to share her enjoyment in being a part of Kris’s world. These images were taken at the runway exit of Kris’s first Dior Homme catwalk show for Fall Winter 2008, on January 20th, 2008 in Paris.

Nan’s pictures are truly up close and personal, almost like surveillance shots, showing Kris as he puts his finishing touches on the models’ looks as they walk out. Stark white face paint renders them as mime artists, and the range of subtly-nuanced expressions that flit across their faces reflects the tension, excitement, adrenalin and maybe apprehension that they are feeling.

Since this event, Nan Goldin continues to shoot Kris Van Assche’s shows for Dior and his own label. We caught up with her in June 2009 after the Dior SS10 show, at which time she expressed her love of Kris’s models as her own muses and friends also: “they really are my boys”.

For December we welcome you to to the world of Belgian designer Kris Van Assche, the curator of the seventh issue of A Magazine and the man currently at the helm of Dior Homme, alongside designing his own mens and womenswear collections in Paris.

Kris Van Assche was born in 1976 in Londerzeel, Belgium, and studied at Antwerp’s prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the mid 1990′s. He later began his designing career under the wing of Hedi Slimane at the house of Yves Saint Laurent, moving on to Dior Homme and later taking creative leadership of the label in 2007, all the while quietly crafting his signature aesthetic, symbolised by a four leaf clover.

Kris’s designs are the result of a search for  balance between sport and formal traditions – technically superb garments that softly assert simple yet exquisite detailing and a crisp lightness upon the male and female forms.

How he translates this to Dior Homme remains a separate yet aligned process. Remaining respectful to the label’s history, Kris’s work takes inspiration from the formalwear of 19th century Paris, contemporary pop culture, and the desert garb of African nomads. The beautiful faces of South America continue to drive his creative urge, with muses such as Emilio Alix.

Throughout the month of December, A Blog reflects upon the beautiful, rich content of A#7 showcasing Kris Van Assche’s selection of his own fashion design and photography, and the work of international artists, photographers and journalists. From the surrealist, organic photographic artwork of Robert and Shana Parkeharrison, to a sleek shoot of Asia Bugajska by Encens‘ Sybille Walter, and Jeff Burton’s controversial laundromat ad campaign for Kris Van Assche – the variety of content and personalities involved will be yours to explore with us.

We will bring exclusive extra content this month, including a post-production interview with Kris Van Assche himself in the next weeks, words and never-before-seen images from photographers in A#7 such as Nan Goldin.

Please click here to see A#7 online at WWW.AMAGAZINECURATEDBY.COM, with another back issue released each month. A#2 by Yohji Yamamoto, A#3 by Haider Ackermann, A#4 by Jun Takahashi, A#5 by Martine Sitbon, A#6 by Veronique Branquinho are also all available to view online now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIWVhagMzk[/youtube]

The occasion of the Dior show always falls late in the fashion week calendar, and this season followed its own trend – with a 3pm event on the last official day of shows. Considering the pomp and ceremony attached to fashion houses of the calibre of Dior, the Dior Homme show manages to deliver a cool ambience – proving Kris is beginning to truly carve his own path in the position made famous by Hedi Slimane. 

The show took place in the same venue as last season, the Carreau du Temple – a space with little correlation to the heights of Paris fashion – simply a rustic warehouse space in the centre of Le Marais. After a long wait outside, surrounded by an abundance of Dior-suited gentleman, we entered to find an entirely whited out space, replete with a Dior branded garage door. But opening to what?

The crowd at Dior was an eclectic mix of fashion buyers, press, and french and international celebrities. Karl Lagerfeld made his honorary appearance as always, seated centre front row for the show, as was rapper Usher – who seemed less than interested in the collection, rather enjoying the experience as a whole i think!

A thumping soundtrack by Belgian group Ghinzu struck up as the garage door rolled up, revealing the simple backdrop of the Parisian streetscape behind – leafy trees, a cafe and a crowd of onlookers – as the first model strode onto the catwalk from their urban origin on the ‘outside’. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZC42q-zVkM[/youtube]

The collection itself was Kris Van Assche’s strongest yet for Dior, opting for a looser structure than in the past – with dark chocolate browns, beiges and blacks providing a sombre colour palette to support a simple draping silhouette.

Above: a  look from the show.

Above: A model backstage post-show in the Paris heat.

Above: Kris Van Assche after the show.

Above: A special mention to this last backstage picture, with US photographer Nan Goldin and one of her muses, Dior model Facundo Pellegrino, sharing a hug and a smile!

In a quiet yet beautiful project, author and curator Barbara Polla has published a small tome in dedication to the soft yet masculine world of Kris Van Assche. Barbara founded the Analix Forever gallery in Geneva,  Titled Amor o Muerte,”love and death” a recurring theme in Kris’s work, the book is abundant in the poetry of love, youth, and male beauty –  placing Kris Van Assche’s work in such contexts, both his own label and the world he has established post-Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme. It is also quite a detailed biographical work, delving into Kris’s studies at the Antwerp Academy, under the direction of Walter Van Beirendonck. 

Last night at the celebrated Parisian bookstore OFR in the heart of the Marais, Barbara hosted a small opening night for the piece, mingling with the fashion crowd and sharing her anecdotes on the work. The book has also been accompanied by a work titled ‘Londerzeel’, what looks to be the first in a series of black and white photography magazines, art directed by Kris in collaboration with Barbara. The title is taken from a Flemish province in Belgium,  where Kris was born. We hope to bring you more news on Londerzeel in the future.

Amor o Muerte is available in a limited run at OFR, Colette and selected bookstores worldwide.