In the six months since Hedi Slimane s last show, rocker Pete Doherty, the troubled muse of that collection, has become a pop cultural id e fixe—in England and certain pockets of Europe, at least. Slimane recently explored his own obsession with Doherty in the photo book London Birth of a Cult. But apparently, that wasn t enough to get him out of his system. Mr. Kate Moss s style returned to haunt the Dior Homme catwalk: The angular, rail-thin silhouette, the monochrome palette, the side-slashed, sleeveless tops, the skinny suspenders, the porkpie hats, all echoed Pete.
Predictably, the googly-eyed one was not there to receive this tribute in person (though he managed to perform at Hedi s birthday party later on). Instead, Mick Jagger was parked in the front row, a reminder that today s bad boys are just a pallid reflection of the past. Mick, of course, is probably one of the few men over 40 trim enough to slip effortlessly into Slimane s slivers of tailoring. This season s jackets and trousers were more attenuated than ever. Low-rise drainpipes clutched the groins of the teenage models. Jackets were cut high in the back with elongated tails dangling in front.
The precision of a little belted trench or cropped Sta-Prest slacks or a black-and-white sequined checkerboard of a top suggested English Mods (along with everything the Mods influenced, from New Wave and Two-Tone right up to Doherty, et al.). The shininess spotlighted the designer s predilection for decadent glamour, as ardent as his worship of gangs of English boys in pop groups. Both inclinations came together beautifully in a gold sequined jacket with a Union Jack on the back.
