Dior Homme uses geometry to mix office, beach

$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$Associated Press$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$

PARIS — Dior Homme’s designer Kris Van Assche is a self-confessed minimalist.

It sits quite nicely, therefore, that the main motif of his spring-summer 2014 menswear show in Paris was the minimalist, neat and geometric shapes of modernist painters such as Piet Mondrian.

In highly wearable tones of burgundy and a rich mid blue (intense without being garish) Van Assche set about painting on refined Dior suit canvasses a patchwork of squares and rectangles in tonal shades of the signature colors.

The disco-cube staging — a labyrinth of rectangular mirrors — reflected the myriad quadrilaterals and produced a wonderful spectacle when the 49 looks with squarely-cut torsos filed back for the finale recap.

The concept produced some great looks, such as a series of smooth sweaters with tapered arms. But elsewhere, where the square shapes were out of kilter with the proportions of the clothes, it worked less well, and the silhouettes came across as somewhat fractured.

The other nice play in the show was the juxtaposition of the office and the beach.

“I really started this season with a lot of contrasts and contradictions,” said Van Assche, who was inspired by the wacky mix of suits and sand at Art Basel in Miami.

Business suits had their arms lopped off, a great and wearable twist, and suit jackets were twinned with shorts.

But the best part of the collection was to be found due south: Sheeny, upper class Oxford shoes, subverted by a great metal suspension spring. Could they be the latest urban trend for fashionistas who have no time to change for the gym after work?