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For Kris Van Assche, designing clothes has always been about appealing to a broad variety of men. It’s what he changed about Dior Homme when he took over as Creative Director there, and what he’s advocated through his eponymous line, KRISVANASSCHE, all along. So it was only fitting that the first exit of his most impressive collection for the label to date should open with the preferred summer uniform of the male population of the Western world: a white shirt, a beige short, and a black shoe. Of course, with the layering sleeve detail on the shirt, the pocket feature on the short, and the body carrying them – i.e. Victor Nylander, Van Assche’s favourite model – the effect was anything but ordinary. The collection had sprung from the idea of the t-shirt and what it signifies to Van Assche. “T-shirts are a man’s wardrobe bases, and I like to think that any man, any age, no matter where he comes from, has a white t-shirt. It’s always sexy or formal,” Van Assche told i-D online backstage. “For me it’s always been about real clothes and it’s always been about real people. It doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be creative, but it always starts in the street. So this is really about reflecting this thing that I like about my clothes, which is that you can go anywhere at any time. You’re never only one or the other,” he noted. It was a philosophy illustrated to superiority in a black shirt with a short white sleeve layered over a long black sleeve, and worn with a narrow, loose black trouser, morphing together elements of casual, formal, sportswear, and workwear in an at once indefinable and totally versatile look.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
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