Dior. Pre- Fall 2021 Menswear

(Images:  Dior)

As countries scramble in a mad rush to begin the COVID-19 vaccinations, the main contender is the most efficient and well tested vaccine from Pfizer, which requires below subzero temperatures to maintain its over 90% effectiveness.  The logistical issues are now just beginning, also as a side note will be the expenses in delivering the more prized, yet temperamental, vaccine.  So, it would seem that the average person on the street may not see a vaccination roll out to them until middle or late 2021.  In the meantime economies and businesses that are keen to pick up revenue into the new year are trying desperately to find new ways to maintain the sales.  The fashion industry in particular, has shelved the once seasonal fashion weeks that we know; the crowded runways, parties, photographers and fans – keeping the calender almost exclusively as a digital affair.  The Northern Hemisphere, is now in the grip of a brutal 2nd wave of the pandemic, to which they maybe a 'hard' lock down till the vaccinations begin, which well could be into 2021.  So be it, in the meantime quarantines and rapid COVID-19 testing are obliviously effective and businesses who have adjusted to this new dawn, will probably come out intact. 

Such is the conglomerate fashion power houses such as Dior, owned by the mega company Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey, yes they have a lot of money to play around with, however the approach on showcasing styles via online presentations has truly worked well and in clearly in their favor. Kim Jones, who remains at the helm of Dior, well known for the intricacies of design that he has set in place for the iconic brand.  While under the LVMH banner, he has been offered to head Fendi as their artistic director.  When looking at this from a business perspective, it is undoubtedly the mega brands who are relying on China to come back on line in a post-Covid 19 world. In the meantime the big European fashion houses have all lifted their prices significantly since September 2020, with queues reported in all of the major Chinese cities, where luxury companies LVMH and Kerring (who owns Gucci) have based a large portion of the retail outlets, in anticipation that the following seasonal arrival of 2021 clothing will be substantially more expensive.  It maybe also a sign that price inflation is about to spike in China and a panic consumption drive is on, for Western luxury goods.  China is one of the most indebted countries in the world.  We don't live in a topsy-turvy reality, we live in asymmetrical mess, with a virus on top that has kicked everyone in the backside. 

Yet, there is no doubting Jones is a talented designer, now shifting between Dior and Fendi, his Pre-Fall 2021 showing is a well orchestrated set piece for Dior's latest collection.  Tapping American seminal pop culture artist Kenny Scharf, an early 80s East Village darling of the NYC art scene, rediscovered in the 21st Century very much like his contemporary Jean-Micheal Basquiat (1960-1988) in all of its past romanticism.  The collaboration with Jones, is an offering of American pop culture aesthetics to Chinese markets, however there is a surrealism in all of this with a full blown trade war with China about to start, reselling artistic concepts of American culture to the second largest economy in the World whilst being intertwined with geopolitical tensions.  The hyper real is truly upon us.

And so is Jones's latest array, which was aimed at Beijing until Covid-19 derailed the plans, he created a multifaceted concept of a live, mixed with art and design, beamed directly to China from Miami, Florida, more specifically from the Rubell Museum, amidst the devastation that Covid-19 has caused the Southern State.   It is hard to dismiss the cynicism, even though the styles on display, for the Pre-Fall show, were of exponential craftsmanship.  Business maybe business and everyone is a consumer.  But, something is not quite right about it all.