Kris Van Assche

For SS11, Kris Van Assche, the creative director at Dior Homme, has streamlined his collection with new volumes in a search for comfort, the ultimate hallmark of genuine luxury. The new season is titled Lessness, showing clean looks, floating shapes, but never losing the quintessential rigor which so much defines the aesthetic of Dior’s menswear range. Taking into account the legacy of Christian Dior, and his obsessive quest for beauty, Kris Van Assche is pushing creativity forward and re-defining men’s fashion at Dior, as well as with his own label.

Your recent collection for Dior, SS11, was a very soft one; loose fits, drapery, and floating jackets. Is Dior Homme getting a bit more relaxed?
I still want to maintain a level of extreme rigor in these new volumes. The lines of this collection are very clean and precise even if they exist in a new framework of movement and fullness. They result from a search for comfort, which is the mark of an unceasingly demanding contemporary luxury.

Is there almost a spiritual quality to the clothes you are designing?
The looks in this collection Lessness suggest an oriental mysticism; they are searching for a sense of harmony and balance. It is a true reflection on luxury, taking away any form of distraction. I am not so sure about the spiritual quality of fashion, but I do believe a nice suit can change your day.

Christian Dior’s idea of beauty was very feminine. Do you want to create a male counterpart, looking for a very masculine identity, or do you think gender divide is a bit last century?
Christian Dior, by creating the New Look in 1947, revolutionized fashion. It is his attitude – persistent, radical, always searching for beauty – which should remain a lesson. His quest for elegance was obsessive. Men have an immutable heritage and I find it very stimulating to have to reinvent the male wardrobe with such constraints. Men and women are not at all the same, and though equally interesting and challenging on a creative level, I like the concept of them being different.

Do you like looking in the past, to rediscover vintage styles or is it all about creating something genuinely new?
I always felt that ignoring the past and its heritage was rather pretentious. Especially in menswear, it is important to learn from old tailored pieces in order to create the new. It is the essence of my work at Dior Homme, working with the ateliers around their knowledge and pushing creativity forward. I never felt that this way of working blocked the creative process; quite on the contrary, I find it very inspiring.

How do you manage to keep the balance right between Dior Homme and your own label?
It is a very precise set-up, my schedule is very tight and I don’t like being late or the people who are…The division of time is based on the requirements of each collection and the problems that have to be dealt with. Creatively speaking, after more than 3 years of combining the two labels, I have developed a sort of sixth sense, which immediately defines whether an idea fits at KVA or Dior Homme. And, I am not counting my working hours…

Text by George Ghon

 

George Ghon is a London based journalist writing about fashion and art.