DIOR CRUISE 2017

Dior,the Parisian luxury fashion house returned to an old venue , Blenheim Palace in London for the cruise 2017 show. Why is the historic place an old venue ? It turns out the fashion house hosted a show,62 years earlier,to benefit the Red Cross.

The following excerpt is from an article in Fashionista.com :

It was pouring buckets when editors, clients and the odd celebrity boarded the Dior Blenheim Express (as the train was branded for the occasion) at the Victoria Station in London Tuesday afternoon. The destination: Blenheim Palace, a sprawling estate that still serves as the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, where Dior would later showcase its cruise 2017 collection. It was a homecoming of sorts for the brand — still without a formal creative director since Raf Simons departed in October — as both Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent had hosted charity shows there 62 and 58 years ago, respectively.

With all the build-up, it was somewhat startling when the show ended just seven minutes later. Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux, who have been appointed to lead the womenswear team until Simons's successor is named, emerged to take their bow. The applause was warm, and well-deserved: The collection might have lacked the purity and directional force of Simons's (as well as Galliano's) for the house, but there were plenty of lovely, finely tailored pieces for clients (and there were plenty in attendance) to collect, and also a willingness to push the boundaries of what is quintessentially Dior, seen in the unusual, and somewhat Italianate, print-mixing and heavy jewel appliqué. If anything detracted from the show, it was the excessive styling: Dior seems intent on drawing attention to its accessories offering, and the many scarves, looped through blazers and knotted around wrists, as well as necklaces, bags and bracelets, were distracting at times. The shoes, many featuring an eye-catching gold and grooved columnar heel, were a very good addition, however, and a highlight for actress Kieran Shipka: When we caught up with her after the show, she enthused that they would "work well with so many different kinds of looks."

As evening set in, guests were ferried back to London to change before an after-show supper at Loulou’s in London’s slick Mayfair neighborhood. The rain, suddenly, had cleared away.

Scroll down to see all the looks from the Cruise show below :