What is Christian Dior doing putting on a show in Tokyo?
Last week, I went to Tokyo for a Christian Dior show. Yeah, I know, that’s what everyone asks: Dior in ... Tokyo? Not Paris? Huh? And then they shake their heads in a fashion-people-are-crazy kind of a way.
No. There is method in this madness, and shrewdness in this extravagance. Dior’s Tokyo pre-fall event represents an emerging strategy by the great Parisian fashion houses to retain status by detaching themselves from the decline of France, and reposition themselves as global brands. The phenomenon of the catwalk show on tour – just a week earlier, Chanel staged one in Salzburg, Austria, and has previously shown in Dubai – is a ploy by which the aristocracy of the fashion industry, who for generations ruled the seas of style unchallenged, intend to maintain their supremacy in a globalised economy.
The most striking part of the Tokyo show was that the Dior collection was not Japanese in any obvious way. There were no wide sleeves or obi belts to be seen. Instead, it was steeped in the essence of Tokyo as a modern, even futuristic, city; one that has produced some of fashion’s greatest innovators. “Beneath the surface softness, Christian Dior’s work was very architectural,” Raf Simons, Dior’s creative director, told me the day before the show. “There is a strong connection there with Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake. When I examine pieces in the Dior archives, it is astonishing how architectural the construction is, for such a feminine look.” Sequinned silver turtleneck sweaters were worn under sleeveless wool dresses with sculpted hips, a supremely glamorous version of the tight “base layer” as a strategy for cosy but sleek cold-weather urban dressing, a look hugely popular in Japan. (Uniqlo, temple of heat-tech turtleneck sweaters, has a 10-storey flagship in Tokyo’s Ginza district.) Coats had an anorak-shine that was weatherproof and flashy; wide-legged trousers were worn with cosy Fair Isle knits.
The show was held in Kokugikan, the national sumo wrestling stadium. Simons chose it for the scale – it seats 10,000, so with an audience of 1,200 it felt so huge that one almost forgot the roof was there, and could imagine the snow to be real. The stadium venue reminded me of something else, though: Will and Kate meeting Jay Z and Beyoncé at the Barclays Center in Manhattan a few days previously. This, for Dior, was almost a state visit to Japan. And – like Kate and Wills meeting the Carters – one that cast the royal visitors in a flatteringly modern, pop-cultural-savvy light. The Tokyo event follows a Dior catwalk show in Brooklyn back in May, and so far this strategy seems to be working: figures released last month showed a 13% rise in revenues for the most recent quarter, to €417m (£331m).
Social media and streetstyle have done much to democratise the traditional fashion-week circuit. A small-scale designer in London, New York, Paris or Milan who can get influencers interested can create real buzz without cash. But he or she cannot stage a multimillion-pound event in Tokyo. In this way – just as the super-rich have left the rest of the world’s population behind – the most powerful luxury houses have created a new superstratum of international glamour, with which smaller names cannot hope to compete.
Each house has its own strategy. Chanel uses its annual Métiers d’Art show to display the artistry of the haute couture ateliers – the finesse of the most accomplished embroiderers in the world, the humbling exactitude of ateliers that make only buttons, or specialise in the placement and stitching of different types of feathers. If knowledge is power, Métiers d’Art is Chanel’s opportunity to parade their golden key. For Christian Dior, on the other hand, the message is more about demonstrating relevance. This collection “isn’t about being inside a boutique, or a cocktail party, it’s about being in the world,” Simons said. “This is a dialogue. I want to be talking with everyone who is interested in the idea of Dior.”
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