分析设计师 Raf Simons 离开 Dior 主因

“Everything is done in three weeks, maximum five. You have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important.”

近期时装界热话莫过于 Raf Simons 离开 Dior 的消息，短短 5 年间第 2 次有艺术总监离职，对于 Dior 来说实属不幸，当然大家更加关注的是 Raf Simons 离开的前因后果。

在 Raf Simons 执掌 Dior 三年半时间里，制作了 20 个系列，在设计上将以往任职 Jil Sander 的极简设计风格延续到高贵华丽的 Dior 女装设计中，并取得一个相当出色的平衡，甚至将科技和运动设计元素融入当中，在业界赢得不少掌声。

而在账面上看，早在 John Galliano 主理的年代，早已为 Dior 销售额进账两成，背负著这上升的压力，Raf Simons 在首季开卖时亦创下了两位数增幅，甚至出现供不应求的情况，虽然这些增长并不可以全部归功于 Raf，但可以肯定的是 LVMH 集团将 Raf Simons 和 Dior 放在一起，是一个相当成功的商业策略。

当外界一直看好之时，Raf Simons 的毅然离开，马上引来外界不少传测，在离任声明中 Raf Simons 并没有作出更多解释。而其实早在年头《Dior and I》电影中，已经可以看到 Raf 与 Dior 对于 Haute Couture (高级定制)的意见上有所分歧，在他「人人穿 Dior」的愿景中，他认为不应花费过多精神在当中，所以在他主理下的高级定制比起以往有著更高的可穿性，此举同时令不少人詬病会让品牌 Ready-To-Wear 和 Haute Couture 的界限变得糢糊，丧失了品牌的本质。

当然背负著沈重销售和创作压力，虽然 Raf Simons 在过去并没有大肆抱怨，但在最近 Business of Fashion 的专访中我们可以看到个中端倪：

“I don’t want to do collections where I’m not thinking.”

以上一句负责任的说话总结了 Raf Simons 离任的主因，只有一对手和一个设计团体，一年春夏、秋冬、早春/秋，再加上 Haute Couture，共 6 个系列，还有大大小小的展览和新店开幕所带来的工作量的确令 Raf Simons 没有更多时间去思考与创作。对于持续创作，Raf Simons 绝对能胜任，但由早到晚，一浪接一浪的设计过程显然让他感到窒息，例如他要在回工作室路程上把灵感记录在电话中，以免忙碌工作过后会忘记；他甚至觉得每个系列短短 3 个星期的制作时间根本无法完成整个设计工序，特别叹息在创作过程中，没有时间去反思和沈淀，更莫说自己的私人思考和休息空间，而这对于 Raf Simons 来说是必须的。访问部份节录如下：

The day after the Dior Fall ready-to-wear show, Raf and I meet for lunch at a restaurant near Avenue Montaigne. He has had some sleep, but not enough to counteract the pace of the previous few days. The show was held in a modernistic tent in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, with more than 1,000 guests. The standout was the tailoring, in particular the lean, dropped-shoulder coats, worn at times over boldly printed bodysuits or a minidress. What the collection lacked in classic Dior romance, it made up for in modern ease. And the coats would have no equal during the Fall season.

“You know, we did this collection in three weeks,” he tells me, not defending the show but, rather, stating the reality that now faces high-fashion houses. “Tokyo was also done in three weeks. Actually everything is done in three weeks, maximum five. And when I think back to the first couture show for Dior, in July 2012, I was concerned because we only had eight weeks.”

He smiles. “And now we never have time like that. And you know? It’s clearly possible to do it, if I have my ideas together. The machine is there. Of course, we have to push really hard. It’s not like we think the ideas and mushrooms come out of the ground.”

Some months ago Raf mentioned that he wanted to create a new studio structure at Dior, so I ask him about that.

“When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for the whole process,” he explains. “Technically, yes — the people who make the samples, do the stitching, they can do it. But you have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important. When you try an idea, you look at it and think, Hmm, let’s put it away for a week and think about it later. But that’s never possible when you have only one team working on all the collections.”

“Also,” he goes on, “what people forget is that when you do a runway show, it eats time away from your schedule. Just the prep time before a show is six or seven days, especially when you are showing abroad.”

“So you’re constantly creating,” I say, “with no time.”

“But I have no problem with the continuous creative process,” he says. ‘Because it’s the reason I’m in this world. It’s always happening. I just did a show yesterday. Just now, while waiting in the car, I sent four or five ideas to myself by text message, so I don’t forget them. They are always coming.”

“Like what? Tell me one.”

He shrugs. “Stupid things. I was just thinking about this kind of very masculine tailoring you see in the navy. It can be stupid things, like a certain button. But I’ve been doing this my whole life. The problem is when you have only one design team and six collections, there is no more thinking time. And I don’t want to do collections where I’m not thinking. In this system, Pieter [Mulier, Simons’ right hand] and I can’t sit together and brainstorm — no time. I have a schedule every day that begins at 10 in the morning and runs through the day, and every, every minute is filled. From 10.10am to 10.30am, it’s shoes, let’s say. From 10.30 to 11.15, it’s jewellery. Everything is timed — the whole week. If there’s a delay in a meeting, the whole day is fucked up.”