Dior Tears

“I want to share that moment in time, that beautiful moment in time where black writers and musicians and artists were coming from America, running from America, and finding some level of acceptance in certain European cities and being able to have their art respected and who they are respected. It wasn’t perfect but it was just a moment, a beautiful moment for blacks to have the privilege and opportunity to escape from the terror, the horrors of America, a segregated Jim Crow America. Artists like Miles Davis and writers like James Baldwin found refuge in Paris.” Tremaine Emory

A journey of Jazz: a dialogue between New York and Paris, via New Orleans is found in the Dior Tears collection. There is a meeting of the elegant and the idiosyncratic, the casual and the classical in the collection, Guest Designed by Denim Tears’ founder and creator Tremaine Emory. Emory is a designer much respected by his long-time friend Kim Jones, and one who here incorporates an idea of the American archetypal with French high savoir-faire.

The Dior Tears collection still has denim as its basis – the fabric’s origins might be French after all, coming from ‘serge de Nimes’ – with special jacquards and discharge prints developed and added to heritage fabrications, with fifties shapes retained. While a sartorial sensibility is augmented, with the skills of the Dior atelier infusing all. Here, American homespun meets French high craft; a commingling and cross-fertilisation of fashion and cultural codes in the collection reflect the movement and influence of the great African-American Jazz musicians who travelled to Europe to play. They were inspired by what they found in Paris and were in turn an inspiration for Paris itself, propelling the avant-garde culture of the city further forward. The collection mirrors this in its own origins.

The collection is one largely inspired by the look of black Ivy League students of the fifties and sixties and the insouciant style of Jazz musicians from the same period. There is also a nod to the civil rights movement that existed simultaneously with both, where workwear was also worn. Here, preppy meets the origins of ‘cool’ via the world of work in archetypal American garments, such as unpretentious plaid shirts, enduring varsity jackets and effortless chinos combined with the sartorial sleekness of classic wool overcoats, sinuous tailored suiting and elegant cognac leather accessories, such as the trumpet bag.

In many ways, the collection is a microcosm of Denim Tears and the world it occupies. Emory’s collections deal directly with the African diaspora, particularly the experience of the diaspora in the United States of America. Adding to this conversation, Dior Tears also incorporates a dialogue with France. Here, signs, symbols and motifs such as cotton blossom and collard greens, as well as the overall narrative of this collection, reflect these concerns. It is particularly resonant in how it relates to Tremaine Emory himself as an African-American who was born in the rural South of the USA and who grew up in New York City.

The journey of Jazz, with its roots in Africa, is a complex one that changed the world. It is fitting then, that the collection is shown in Egypt, on the site of one of the cradles of civilisation that changed the world. It is presented in ‘tableau vivant’ form, surrounded by the antiquities of one of the greatest civilisations of all in the grand Egyptian museum.

The Dior Tears look book, photographed by Liz Johnson Arthur, feature projections of photography and film stills captured in Paris during the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.

Sourced from Dior’s archive, photographs of founder and designer Christian Dior, pioneering Jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, scenes from popular night clubs and the Christian Dior atelier are abstracted, drawing inspiration from Dadaist collage, an art movement established in 1916 by Hugo Ball in Zurich.

Dadaism or “Dada” was formed during the First World War in reaction to the horrors of war and widespread disillusionment with traditional values of society. Leading artists associated with the movement include Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Kurt Schwitters.

The distorted compositions shot for the Dior Tears look book suggest the inner turmoil of black artists who escaped the horrors of black life in the United States and found acceptance in European cities like Paris.