“Angles” was Kris Van Assche’s concept for his new Dior Homme collection. A waistcoat built from ridged black and white paillettes certainly embodied the idea, as did triangular cutouts in jackets. Angularity being something of a New Wave concept (all those skinny people in skinny suits playing skinny music), it was scarcely a surprise to find echoes of the eighties throughout the show, from Malcolm McLaren’s remix of his dance hymn “Deep in Vogue” to oversize tees with large-lettered messages, exactly like Katharine Hamnett’s originals (a style that was famously purloined by Frankie Goes to Hollywood for the “Frankie Say Relax” T-shirt, which is, of course, another eighties reference). Alongside them were the skinny black suits that are a Dior Homme signature, and the voluminous, multi-pleated Hammer pants—though M.C. himself barely squeaks under the wire of the Decade that Taste (Allegedly) Forgot—that Van Assche has made his own. This season, he eased up on the volume a little and folded the waistband to create a kind of cummerbund. As an alternative, he offered the exact opposite: tight pants with a zippered calf.
This review was originally published on men.style.com on January 26, 2009. It has been added to Vogue Runway in June 2021 as a part of The Lost Season.