Saturday 11th July

| BY Natalie Dembinska


Dior Homme

In the world that exists solely in my head, there is a very real possibility that when Kris Van Assche was designing his s/s Dior Homme collection, he knew about the upcoming Fleetwood Mac reunion featuring all five original members, not just four like the last time. He could have just been watching a lot of American Horror Story: Coven, but I prefer the version of events in my head where Van Assche is cast as some sort of Fleetwood Mac clairvoyant, rather than a man who likes to spend his evenings watching TV shows about fierce witches like the rest of us. Anyway, there is, no matter how you look at the collection, an undeniable undercurrent of Stevie Nicks about the whole thing. So maybe not in the actual collection necessarily. That was influenced, after all, by Christian Dior himself and his love of nature, the graffiti roses, his favourite flower, the nautical elements, inspired by his childhood home in Granville, along with the lines of his very own handwriting across shirts and suit jackets. But the shoes, the shoes speak of Nicks, for what else does a dark leather brogue covered in crisscrossed laces say to a person looking upon them, for example, browsing in their local Dior Homme boutique, if not Leather and Lace? For these could be the most perfect fusion of leather and lace created. And who ever said the lace had to be lace as in the fabric. Yes, Nicks might be more a lace lady in the fabric sense, but every once in a while there will come along a man who would like a bit of Nicks realness in his life, and why should a fondness for a fancy sheer fabric with a propensity for snagging be denied? This is obviously why Van Assche has designed the ultimate leather and lace shoe. Because he understands. And is there really a more perfect song that encapsulates a person’s love for a shoe than Leather and Lace? Yes, Nicks may have duetted on it with Don Henley, but those words were never meant for him. They were meant for these shoes. For she obviously has clairvoyant tendencies, too, and knew that, one day, there would be a shoe worthy of her words. For what could be a greater expression of love than asking your shoe if it could ever love a man like you? Than a shoe replying that when it walked into your house it knew it would never want to leave? And you knowing that you’d never want it to leave, because sometimes you are a strong man, and sometimes cold and scared, and sometimes you might even cry, but when you saw it, the shoe, you knew that, with it to light your nights, you’d somehow get by, and so it gave you both its leather and lace, and took from you that other lace. After all, who has the time to deal with all that potential snagging?