Men’s wear existed at Dior long before Hedi Slimane. But it was a radically different business, founded on traditional tailoring and sporty outfits more fit for the yacht club than the dance club.
“We were a very classical and traditional house,” said Patrick Lavoix, who oversaw Dior’s men’s business before Slimane was hired in 2000. “That was our clientele.”
Lavoix, who held the men’s reins at Dior for nine years, was the last in a long line of designers who cultivated a conservatively luxurious image for the house. He was, like Dominique Morlotti, whom he succeeded, a veteran of the Lanvin men’s business. (Morlotti quit Dior to go to Lanvin, where he designed both men’s and women’s collections for a short period.)
“There was this bridge between Lanvin and Dior in those days,” explained Lavoix. “I had spent 16 years at Lanvin. It’s funny that Morlotti and I flipped houses. Dior, at the time, wanted a chic and elegant direction.”
Before Morlotti, Gérard Penneroux, another Lanvin alum, designed Dior’s men’s wear, which was known as Christian Dior Monsieur, a name rife with stately, unchangeable connotations. It was a world apart from the Dior Homme moniker Slimane adopted when he revved the house up with young, high-octane fashion.
The Dior men’s business was founded in 1970 by Marc Bohan, a task he didn’t enjoy. “I hated going into the men’s department,” Bohan said. Still, he did on many occasions, including one day when he learned Dior tailors were fitting Marlene Dietrich for a men’s style suit.
During Lavoix’s tenure, the designer said he strove to cement a link between Dior the man and the clothes.
“I was inspired by the life of Mr. Dior,” said Lavoix, who once did a runway show representing vignettes of Dior’s life. “I found his civilization and culture inspiring; the actors and artists that he knew, all of the refinement that he surrounded himself with. I was trying to echo a certain idea of sophistication.”
At the time, in fact, much of the Dior men’s business was licensed, presenting a tricky leviathan to homogenize. Bernard Arnault, head of Dior parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, started to scale back licenses in the mid-Nineties to modernize the house and make it a more profitable business.
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For Lavoix, the Dior brand was magic.
“I still remember a red tartan bathrobe my mother gave me for my 17th birthday from Dior. I was so proud. It was sublime. I still have it. For me, Dior was equated with this incredible feeling of luxury,” said Lavoix, who today splits his time between Paris and Tangier, where he designs furniture. “Luckily for me, I have enough Dior left in my wardrobe to last me the rest of my life.”