PARIS – To introduce its Dior Homme S/S 2017 collection, the legendary French fashion house moved away from catwalks sown with entire conservatories of flowers and miles of mirror to a more notionally active centrepiece, a roller coaster that was suspended – floating magically – at the heart of an otherwise conventional depot. Designed by Brussels-based production studio Villa Eugénie, the roller coaster looked like a vast piece of punk jewellery in the low light, a roiling track riveted with festively coloured marquee lights that glowed in the twilight of the sky-lit setting.

The collection, by Belgian fashion designer and Dior Homme artistic director Kris Van Assche, a young man often influenced by a fusion of subcultures and generations, was dominated by screen-printed suit jackets and waistcoats mixed with leather harnesses and martial detailing, which Van Assche co-opted from athletic apparel.

Mounted atop a runway plated with embossed metal, the narrow black roller coaster featured precipitously coiling loops and carnivalesque lights, in and out of which the models threaded. Although site-specific, the scenography elicited a feeling shared by youth on the cusp of adulthood around the globe: Van Assche wanted the environment to evoke the industrial-rustic Sinksenfoor fairground in Antwerp, where young people gather, anticipating an evening filled with unexpected encounters and unknown adventure.



Photos Adrien Dirand, courtesy of Dior Homme

villaeugenie.com

This project was featured in Frame 113. Find your copy in the Frame Store.