Raf Simons’ Esprit Dior Tokyo 2015 collection touches down in Japan

Stepping up the trend for fashion houses to show their pre-collections in increasingly exotic locations and with exceptionally extravagant presentations, Dior creative director Raf Simons transported us to the ‘megalopolis’ that is Tokyo for his pre-fall 2015 show.

‘Tokyo is a place that has been and is so constantly inspiring to me,’ he explained. ‘Particularly in terms of the liberty people take for themselves in how they dress, there is nowhere else like it; the freedom of styles, the new architecture of clothing that you can see forming in the street as well as in city’s fashion design history... it’s a place that is both extreme and exhilarating.’

On his intergalactic runway, Simons’ focus was a futuristic fusion of East meets West, where fantasy and reality co-existed. English woollen plaids and Fair Isle knits juxtaposed kawaii-inspired micro Miss Dior bags and eclectic layering that referenced Tokyo's street style as much as its forward-thinking architecture. A study in contrasts, day met evening, high shine, matt surfaces; defining Simons new ‘utilitarian glamour’. His opening look, a neon yellow collared, camel-coloured, laminated coat concealed a glittering sequin skivvy as a case in point.

Dior took over the sprawling city’s iconic sumo stadium creating an abstracted urban landscape that was touched by falling snowflakes throughout the show – highlighting the collection’s outerwear oeuvre. Fusing fantasy with sci-fi, the soundscape mixed tunes from Blade Runner and Interstellar’s soundtracks – referencing Simons’ initial other-worldly impressions of Tokyo, which he first visited in the mid 1990s. Produced by Bureau Betak, the set’s arena-style construction alone took four days of non-stop tooling to bring the designer’s glittering Tokyo megalopolis to life.