Christian Dior - Autumn/Winter 2013-14

IT'S not even been a year since his appointment as the creative director at Dior (he was appointed in April 2012), but already Raf Simons has managed to successfully build his own breed of the brand: exploring the heritage of the house, its identity and what it means and combining it with his own codes to stay faithful to that and bring it into the 21st Century. 

Bringing Dior to the people (which he has in fact already been doing through the current series of Dior pop-up shops happening in the world's most fashionable stores).

For Simons is a utilitarian designer at heart and this collection reflected that - with a distinct lack of eveningwear (cocktails at the most), in favour of looks that you would see women on the street wearing (Dior coming to the people again). It's something we've been seeing a lot of at the shows this season - from Bottega and Prada to Lanvin - clothes that are practical and feminine, but it's a design attribute that is Simons through and through, a designer who likes to be in touch with culture, the young and the new, what's going on now.

Which makes sense then that we found Andy Warhol, a zeitgeist of his times, as part of Simons' "scrapbook" of inspiration. Dior collaborated with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for the recurring hand-drawn motifs on chiffon wisps of dresses in white and black. But this surrealist element had been paved before that - the silver balloon setting of the catwalk, the sky and clouds projected onto it, ready for Simons' codes - old and new - to play out.

There came the same bustier shapes and styles that he has very much made his own - on dresses in black and white and smothered in blooms or a new working of Dior's houndstooth print. There were the Bar jackets and the full skirts - this time never reaching the ground and kept youthful at knee lengths. And there was that same muted and controlled colour palette - blush, grey, black and white - with only a burst of scarlet here and there to make its point. Asymmetrical capes sat on shoulders but worked to form the top half of a look, while Oxford bags made for the trouser style of choice, worn with elegant Dior jackets, and there were coats of Red Riding Hood proportions, lapels unfolding, too. 

With the three previous collections that Simons has created for the house (one ready-to-wear, two couture), he has put his building blocks in place and now with this collection he is very much building on them. And when you have one great building there's no need to go off and make another.

elleuk.com and vogue.co.uk