Updated Wednesday April 11, 9.03am: Joan Burstein, Colin McDowell and Katie Grand, among others, have joined the debate about the appointment of Raf Simons at Dior - and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
"It is not a surprise that he has got this position as he bought another dimension to Jil Sander as far as sophistication and a touch of glamour was concerned," Browns founder Burstein - the woman who bought Simons' predecessor John Galliano's graduate collection in 1984, 12 years before he was appointed by Dior - told us. "And I am sure he will have the opportunity to develop his great talent at Dior."
"This is a great chance for Raf to prove himself a true all-rounder," legendary fashion journalist and Fashion Fringe founder Colin McDowell added. "I see no reason why he should not succeed in moving Dior in a new direction and I look forward to his collections with great anticipation. It is so refreshing to have another young designer alongside Riccardo Tisci as an haute couture creator."
"I am a huge fan of Raf's, he's smart, clever, interesting and extremely talented," Love editor - and long-time Marc Jacobs collaborator - Katie Grand told us. "I think he will modernise Dior's womenswear and I'm very excited to see a fresh, new vision from the house."
"Raf is possibly the most modern designer of our time," fashion consultant Yasmin Sewell added. "Having him take on one of the most historical fashion houses will be, in my opinion nothing short of ground breaking"
Updated Monday April 9, 6.48pm: Christian Dior has confirmed that Raf Simons has taken the place of John Galliano at the house. The designer, who left his post as creative director of Jil Sander in February, will show his first collection for Dior during Couture Week in July, and will hold the official title of "artistic director".
"It is with the utmost respect for its tremendous history, its unparalleled knowledge and craftsmanship that I am joining the magnificent house of Dior," Simons said today. "Mr Christian Dior has always been for me the most inspiring couturier. Around the globe, the name Dior symbolises the ultimate in elegance and refinement. I am truly humbled and honoured to become artistic director of the most celebrated French house in the world."
"Raf Simons is an extraordinarily talented designer," said Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman on hearing the news. "He combines great skill and vision with modernity and a point of view, which is essential for leading fashion houses today."
The appointment comes more than a year after John Galliano's high profile dismissal, which preceded a trial in Paris during which he was found guilty of using anti-Semitic insults. Simons is only the sixth designer to helm Christian Dior - following the founder, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, and John Galliano in the role.
Much like his predecessor, Simons has one eye on the history of the brand - but aims to bring his own point of view to the label.
"My aim is a very modern Dior, but at the end of the day, I also look back," Simons told the New York Times, referring to what he calls "mid-century modernism".
"I find that period between 1947 and 1957 extremely attractive, and there was a lot of modernity," he said. "There was the romantic appeal looking back to his mother and the belle époque, but there was also a constant evolution in shape, changing proportions and the ideas connected to the World War were revolutionary."
"It is with tremendous excitement that the House of Dior is welcoming Raf Simons, one of today's greatest talents," LVMH added in a statement. "Monsieur Dior's first collection radically changed the codes of elegance all over the world. Following the legacy of its founder, Raf Simons' journey with the house of Dior will propel its iconic style into the 21st Century."
And for those who think the former menswear designer will struggle with the rigours of couture, Simons has a simple answer.
"It is not always right to judge everything in terms of commerciality," he said. "In the art world there are collectors, curators and an audience, and they are all important. I am fascinated with what could be the relevance of the language of couture in the 21st Century."
Updated Monday March 19 9.43am: One of the designers linked with the still-vacant post at the helm of Christian Dior, Haider Ackermann, has spoken about the possibility of helming an established house alongside his eponymous label.
"There are two houses I would be interested in," Ackermann said. "Two where I feel there is shared sensibility, and I could bring something else of myself to the house, which isn't expressed in my own line."
Although reluctant to name either house, he concedes that his dream is "couture". Ackermann has long been linked with the creative directorship at Chanel - after Karl Lagerfeld named him as his chosen successor if and when he decides to step down - and was linked again with the Dior job in March of this year after flowers arrived at Dior's Paris headquarters addressed to him (read more below). Despite the pressure placed on designers in established houses - widely assumed to have contributed to John Galliano's very public fall from grace last March - Ackermann insists this isn't something that would worry him.
"Look, let's be honest," Ackermann told the Financial Times. "You can't just blame the system. We are all responsible for our own lives. I find it difficult when people complain about the pressure. This is fashion, it's not surgery. It's a job; a job with a lot of dreams woven in."
Updated Monday March 13, 9.07am: Respected fashion commentator Colin McDowell has weighed in on the Dior successor debate again this morning - insisting that new blood, rather than a safe established name, is what the house needs for the next phase of its development.
"And so we come to the tragic case of Dior," he writes for the Business of Fashion, after offering his opinion on Raf Simons' Jil Sander departure and Hedi Slimane's YSL arrival. "And it is tragic on more levels than one: that a label needs a designer and that a man, for all his transgressions, needs a job. Fashion needs that man. To insert Bill Gaytten - an undisputedly brilliant technician, but not a designer - into the gap at Dior can be nothing but a temporary solution. It's high time this gap was closed. But why not with somebody young and untested, as Yves Saint Laurent was when he took over the reins at Dior at the tender age of 21 and went on to revolutionise women's clothes? I still believe that designers with genius and courage, traits which are invariably independent of age, are more likely to thrive at a grand Paris label than at brands in any of the world's other fashion capitals at this point."
McDowell made headlines last year after he revealed he had written to Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano to recommend Yves Saint Laurent-lookalike Erdem Moralioglu for the vacant post. Another young London-based designer, Christopher Kane, was linked with the job last month (see below) - but told us exclusively that he is not in the running.
Updated Wednesday March 7, 1.12pm: Whispers on the Miu Miu front row this afternoon (where Marc Jacobs tapped his feet as he watched the show), suggest that - after all the back-and-forth - Jacobs is set to be announced as the Christian Dior creative director this afternoon.
Jacobs was one of the first names in the frame when Galliano was dismissed in March 2011, but after serious negotiations with LVMH ceo Bernard Arnault, Jacobs effectively ruled himself out of the running late last year - reportedly after his request to bring his entire Louis Vuitton team with him was denied by Arnault.
"I am at Vuitton, and I am very happy there," Jacobs said in December 2011. "I've been saying that for a long time. There have been on-and-off conversations about Dior. I don't know; maybe someday in the future, maybe years from now, I may end up going someplace else, maybe Dior. But right now I am at Vuitton, and all that matters to me is that that's where I am and I'm going to keep doing my thing."
In some way substantiated by this morning's show, which was a tribute to Louis Vuitton's proud history as a luggage brand, Jacobs' rumoured departure would leave the way open for recently-departed Jil Sander creative director Raf Simons to take the Louis Vuitton helm.
Updated Thursday March 1, 8.43am: While the fashion world seems to think that the appointment of Raf Simons at Christian Dior is a foregone conclusion - despite murmurs that contract negotiations have stalled and Bill Gaytten's agreement may have been extended - we heard some news this morning that may just throw a spanner in the works. A source in Paris tells us that a bouquet of flowers arrived at Dior HQ yesterday morning addressed to one Haider Ackermann - the Columbian-born designer first linked with the job in March 2011 following Galliano's departure.
Could this be a mistake? A simple address mix-up? Well, considering that Ackermann's Paris offices on the Rue Saint Maur are almost three and a half miles from Dior's Avenue Montaigne HQ, it seems unlikely. So does someone know something we don't?
Previously said to be considered "too edgy" for Dior, he was linked with a move to Givenchy at a time when Riccardo Tisci seemed the likely replacement for Galliano. Karl Lagerfeld has made no secret of the fact that he would like Ackermann to replace him at Chanel when the time is right, but could Dior tempt him away from that offer?
Updated Tuesday February 28, 10.42am: Christopher Kane has ruled himself out of the running for the Dior job, just a day after he was linked with the role by the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes.
"While it is incredibly flattering that I could be considered for a role at a house such as Dior at this stage in my career, I can confirm that I have not been approached," Kane told us this afternoon. "I am focused on developing my own label and my ongoing collaboration with Donatella Versace for Versus."
Industry insiders feel that it is likely that Raf Simons will be appointed to the label, following his departure from Jil Sander, but both Stefano Pilati - this week confirmed to be leaving YSL - and Hedi Slimane are still being mooted for the role.
Updated Monday February 27, 1.31pm: Respected fashion writer Suzy Menkes has added another possible name to the mix for the Dior job, by suggesting that London designer Christopher Kane could now be in the running.
"The collaboration between Donatella Versace and Christopher Kane with his sister Tammy is a sweet reminder of the Gianni Versace-Donatella years," Menkes says. "But what if - as the rumour mill claims - Mr Kane has been put up for the Dior job? There will be yet another round of musical chairs."
The quote is part of a longer piece which Menkes has written for the International Herald Tribune this morning, about the current upheaval in the fashion world - beginning a year ago with the dismissal of John Galliano from Dior, continuing with Friday's announcement that Raf Simons will be replaced at Jil Sander by the woman herself, and further compounded by today's confirmation that Stefano Pilati will leave YSL - which, she says, "leaves a queasy feeling".
LAUREN MILLIGAN 11 April 2012
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2011/06/21/john-galliano-successor-who-will-take-over-at-christian-dior
