Cutting through Abundance: Raf Simons and the Artful Slice

Abstract

This article interprets fashion designer Raf Simons’s use of elegant cuts in his Fall–Winter 2014/15 ready-to-wear collection for Christian Dior in relationship to economic cuts instituted as a response to the Great Recession. It situates the incisions used by Simons within the history of fashion and of art as a means to propose that several dresses from the collection convey a subtly subversive message. In their silhouette, they resemble Dior’s New Look, a style associated with the return to abundance and optimism that followed World War II. But cuts in fashion often symbolize defiance and rebellion. With their precise cuts through an abundance of fabric, Simons’s dresses for Dior expose the uncertainty that accompanies the current economic revival.