In Dior's collection for the Cruise 2016 season, Raf Simons, Artistic Director of Christian Dior, looks to the landscape and memory of the South of France. Gaining inspiration from the colours, textures and light of the natural world of the Cote d’Azur, together with the style of the people who have inhabited it, the designer draws on tradition and technique to realise clothing for today. In so doing, Le Palais Bulles situated on the cliffs of Théoule-sur-Mer, becomes a metaphor for the approach to the collection overall -- incidentally, it is owned by Pierre Cardin, the great couturier and former Head of Atelier Tailleur to Mr Christian Dior himself.

"I wanted an idea of freedom, playfulness and individuality to come to the fore in this collection, especially in consideration of the Dior archive,” explains Raf Simons.

Down-to-earth utilitarian garments are contrasted against those of traditional elegance in the collection, where a confluence of styles, patterns, textures and techniques evoke the multi-layered world of the South. The overall and the artist’s smock, the bathing costume and the bias cut evening gown all sit easily side-by-side.

"In many ways it is a form of architecture you cannot connect to another," says Raf Simons of the locale known as the 'Bubble Palace'. "It is more human than rational; individual and playful. It is a place that I have been fascinated by for a number of years and I am so happy to be able to show here."