Above image: Dior Homme Winter 2015 Preview. Image credit: Gaetan Bernard

Though Christian Dior never laid a finger on menswear in his lifetime, its with gratitude for the designer’s own tailored style that Kris Van Assche approaches Dior Homme line today. And it runs deeper: in the past couple of seasons alone we’ve seen Van Assche utilise Dior’s lucky floral symbol, the Lily of the Valley, and last season his own handwriting, lifted from a letter to scrawl pinstripes and heavy washed denim.

Still, Monsieur Dior himself lived and breathed innovation, and it’s this that defines our future. Therein lies the juggling act Van Assche faces everyday – this season, he says, pushing it more than ever…

Dior Homme Winter 2015

“This Winter collection is really about the type of man I would like to run into on the street,” says Kris Van Assche. “I wanted to look at the idea of elegance, but free it of its ‘historical’ connotations – that’s not what I like.

It is again a personal take on the heritage of Monsieur Dior, but literally in a less literal way! In many ways this Winter collection is a 2015 take on Mr Dior being a ‘flower man’ – the Homme Fleur as opposed to the Femme Fleur.

I always think the first day of the new season is the last day of the last season! At the end of last season, I decided I wanted this collection to be more formal. From that initial sartorial stance, the collection became more techno, so the collection has a sense of the ‘techno-sartorial’ about it.

Linking the past with the present and future is the very definition of my work and everyday life. At the moment I think a lot of people do not know where to take things; the confidence in the future is not great and there are more certainties in the past. But at Dior Homme we like to focus on an energetic man who has a confidence in his own path, in his own future, somebody who is not always looking back.”

Dior Homme Winter 2015 shows in Paris this afternoon, Saturday 24th January. Stay tuned to HERO for full fashion week coverage from London, Florence, Milan and Paris