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Christian Dior haute couture show - review

The troubled label attempts to get back on track with a safe couture collection, but Jess Cartner-Morley is underwhelmed

I think it's fair to say that the house of Christian Dior has not had a good year. Galliano dragged the name through the mud. The first haute couture show by his right-hand man Bill Gaytten was monstered by reviewers. The continued failure to appoint a successor has left the label in a state of limbo.

The spring/summer haute couture collection shown in Paris on Monday was a clear attempt to get the Dior name back on track. Gaytten was taking no chances getting his message across this time: he had the Christian Dior quote he used at the top of the show notes hand-embroidered in organza on to the skirts of several dresses.

"Elegance must be the right combination of distinction, naturalness, care and simplicity," it read.

This collection was "an X-ray of Dior", Gaytten said after the show. That meant two things. The wasp-waisted, full-skirted silhouette was a clear reference to the Dior heyday of the early 1950s, while the extraordinary construction of the clothes was celebrated with transparent fabrics which showed off the layers and underpinnings that form the base of those shapes.

It was a nice show. It will sell. But it was safe, and lacking in newness: a celebration of Dior's history and heritage, more than a style point of view with relevance for 2012. There is as yet no happy ending for this house.

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