‘Dior and I’ premieres in L.A.
The pale Dior gray carpet was rolled out Wednesday night at the L.A. County Museum of Art for the L.A. premiere of “Dior and I,” which opens here Friday.
First-time director Frederic Tcheng’s documentary follows designer Raf Simons in the spring of 2012 as he creates his first haute couture collection as creative director for the storied house, after the very unceremonial departure of John Galliano.
“Dior and I” humanizes the world of haute couture by showing that the artistry is as much about the seamstresses in the workrooms as it is design direction from on high.
A smattering of young celebs turned out on Wednesday, including Jaime King in a red wool Dior dress, pink sequin turtleneck and over-the-knee patent leather boots; Ashley Madekwe in a mint green Dior coat dress; Maika Monroe in a rose cotton and silk toile Dior tail coat paired with sporty quilted black shorts; and Chiara Ferragni in a Dior embroidered printed silk and heather tweed scarf dress.
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” costume designer Arianne Phillips was happy to be able to catch the screening before jetting off to Beijing on Thursday morning for Prada’s “The Iconoclasts” program, which has costume designers interpreting the spring ready-to-wear collection in installation form. Handbag designer Sally Perrin was also in the seats, with one of her pink Cabriolet clutches in hand.
And Sharon Takeda, senior curator and head of the Department of Costume and Textiles at LACMA, where Simons and other fashion designers often come to do historical research, was there to take in the film a second time.
“Just knowing Raf and the way he works, he’d never come to something like this,” Takeda said of the limelight-averse designer, before adding that the film was a moving experience. “I teared up.”
“The film was a true labor of love,” said Tcheng in his introduction to the crowd, where he singled out the film’s L.A.-based editor, Julio Perez.
After the screening, champagne was served in the courtyard outside, and guests left with a copies of the book that inspired the structure of the film, the autobiography “Dior by Dior.”
