216 |Harper’s BAZAAR|September 2014PORTRAIT BY CHRISTOPHER STURMAN. VICTOIRE WEARS: SWEATER AND SHOES, DIOR. COAT AND TROUSERS, HER OWN. HAIR: CHRISTOPHE HASENBEIN. MAKE-UP: CAROLE COLOMBANI. PRODUCTION: CÉLINE GUILLERM FOR OCTOPIX.FR. FASHION EDITOR: JOANNA HILLMANJEWELS
The
FOR VICTOIRE DE CASTELLANE, the Archi Dior
collection – the name is a play on ‘architect’ and the colloquial
French term for ‘exceedingly’ – isn’t about looking back so
much as fi nding ways to move forward. Nothing is symmetrical,
cuts are unconventional, and, as the pieces turn, new angles and
folds appear and unfurl. “The idea is not to do retro jewels,” she
says. “Just as Raf [Simons, the house’s current couturier] mines
Dior inspirations in his collections, it’s about revisiting themes so
they become relevant once again.”
Archi Dior will be offi cially unveiled at Paris’ Biennale des Antiquaires this
month, and with its abstract twists and couture sensibility, it refl ects a shift
in tone for Victoire as a designer. First tapped by the house to launch Dior
Joaillerie in 1998, she has since served up a volley of wild-at-heart collections
fl avoured by such eclectic infl uences as Walt Disney, Old Hollywood and
Bollywood. Themes have ranged from the poisonous blooms and butterfl ies
of Belladone Island to supersize cocktail rings inspired by the elaborate
fashions of the Incroyables and Merveilleuses during the French Directory
period of the late 18th century.
This new, cleaner vision is synergistic with the transformation taking place
in Dior’s couture and ready-to-wear collections under Raf Simons. “The new
spirit of Dior is more modern, but Dior is also all about the past and identity,”
she explains, adding that the decision to mine the concept of architecture came
about as a change from “all the fl owers that I was doing for Dior – everybody was
doing fl owers in high jewellery – and I was thinking maybe it’s the moment to do
something more abstract but also fi gurative.” The challenge for Victoire and Dior’s high
jewellery atelier was to evoke the fl uid feel of fabric constructions using hard materials such as gold and
precious stones.
The designer’s own line of transformable hybrid jewellery sculptures is equally adventuresome. “As a designer
who tends to design more unexpected pieces, classicism can be extravagant for me,” she explains. “I am
possibly in a more adult mood.”
Victoire has always had her own take on the game. There’s an irreverence to everything she touches, whether
in the “upside-down classics” (as she refers to them) of Archi Dior or even in the evolution of her personal
style, which in some ways has mirrored her work as a designer (prior to joining Dior, she designed costume
jewellery for Chanel from 1984 to ’97) and which has come, more recently, to refl ect a new sense of comfort
and simplicity. For all her creative brio, pragmatism now rules romance for the busy mother of four. These
days Victoire zeroes in on minimal foundations in navy and black and favours lines so crisp they could be
traced in ink. She has even taken to wearing trousers after having eschewed them for decades. At a dinner last
year at Versailles, Victoire wore a neon-pink sweater beneath a black Bar jacket by Raf Simons.
“It’s a beautiful classic, easy to wear at night with a pair of pants,” Victoire says of the
iconic style, from Dior’s 1947 debut collection (christened the New Look by
Bazaar’s then editor, Carmel Snow). But she also likes to keep a relaxed attitude.
On a night out – when jewellery is permitted – she’ll pick out one statement
piece and effortlessly mix utilitarian basics with couture. “I want the right
clothes that allow me to feel at ease and forget about them,” she says.
“I don’t like following what’s ‘in.’ I hate trends, actually. It’s not for me;
I’m not interested.”‘Archi Dior Corolle
Soir Saphir’ ring in
white gold, diamonds
and sapphire, Dior
High Jewellery‘Archi Dior Milieu du Siècle
Diamant’ earrings in white
gold, plated black gold
and diamonds,
Dior High Jewellery