Darkly shrouded, sallow-faced youths skulk in the shadows, chains and spikes catching the glint of strobe lights as nu rave music reverberates.

Not some edgy warehouse happening on the outskirts of Berlin, but a Dior Homme show in the Grand Palais, a grand pistachio-hued 19th-century jelly mould of a structure in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. That spectacle, the autumn/winter 2017 men’s collection from Dior Homme’s artistic director, Kris Van Assche, marked the Belgian designer’s 10th year in his current role at Dior – which by coincidence also toasted its seventh decade in January – with his anarchic anti-heroes juxtaposed against the beaux-arts building. "Contrast, no?" says Van Assche with a half-smile at the unexpectedness of renegade teenagers causing mayhem in Maison Dior.

Or perhaps it’s not that unexpected: tension and friction have always been at the heart of Van Assche’s work at the house, imbuing the rigorously tailored suits with a streetwear counter-culture influence. "The show was about Hardior," says the designer, referring to the logo emblazoned on the gaffer tape that criss-crossed the floor. "It was about this hardcore party scene, a spectacle, the energy of youth culture. A lot of people want to put brands into boxes – you’re either a classic luxury house or you’re a cool fashion label – but it just so happens that the house of Dior has always been about contrast. Mr Dior himself was always focused on the contrast between feminine volumes and masculine fabrics."

It’s that mixing of mindsets and rules – a shot of adrenaline into the grey pinstripes and polished leathers of the rue Francois store that’s become Van Assche’s USP since he stepped into Hedi Slimane’s shoes to become artistic director in 2007. Slimane had taken Van Assche with him when he left Yves Saint Laurent, where he ran the menswear, having been appointed by the couturier himself. Slimane’s reign at Dior Homme, from 2000 to 2007, was one of those era-defining moments in men’s style that reach beyond the fashion world to fundamentally change how men dress. Drainpipe trousers? That was Slimane at Dior Homme. Suits narrowed to blade-sharp proportions? Slimane at Dior Homme.

Happily, Van Assche, boyish and slender at 40 years old, has built up strong aesthetic codes of his own. "I have a long-term relationship with the house and with the archives," he says, having started as an assistant in the design team. "We offer bespoke tailoring, we offer beautiful business suits, we can do a high-end, super-luxurious leather jacket – but at the same time do something that’s more fashion and out there. The fashion part makes the luxury part less classical, and the luxury part makes the fashion less street. It’s a win-win."

In real terms, for spring/summer 2017 that means impeccably cut suits with a distinctive Dior Homme silhouette (high on the arm hole, slender of waist) that are given a street-cool edge with rivets, trailing threads and chainmail piping. Don’t be deceived by the apparently punkish accents, however; the chainmail is white gold, the threads woven with artisanal skill. Slashed denim jeans are never just slashed denim jeans: they’re rendered with intricate stitched patchwork panels appliqued with faded blooms – a nod to the feminine florals so integral to the romance of Dior. Van Assche’s manipulation of the mores of men’s style – streetwear peppered with luxury accents, suits subjected to a degree of "trashing" – comes as part of a broader shift towards experimentation in menswear at a time when it’s the fastest-growing fashion market.

"Men today are much more engaged with fashion. I’ve worked in menswear for 18 years, and when I began there was nowhere near the level of competition or interest." Their customer, says Van Assche, is as likely to be a rapper such as A$AP Rocky (one of the stars of the current campaign) as a well-groomed, 50-something businessman in the market for a sharply tailored suit, the best example of which could well be Dior Homme president Serge Brunschwig, always immaculate in a handsome black number.

It’s that rigour and skill in the tailoring department – trends may ebb and flow but a man will always need a good suit – that’s added to one of the biggest debates in men’s style at the moment, namely how to entice younger clients away from sweatpants and into single-breasted jackets. "The suit is a totem of the house. I hear that tailoring is over and that young kids today don’t wear suits, everyone is in hoodies…" He gestures to the bustling street below his Dior Homme eyrie, a glacial white Gattaca-style warren of rooms with spartan furniture and bare floorboards. "But maybe it’s because we just haven’t given them the right suits. This season we’ve really started looking at how to reinvent contemporary tailoring, adding a streetwear element in the pants, perhaps – making them loose and baggy – and pairing with a very tailored jacket. It’s a bridge into a more mature style without moving beyond a familiar environment."

Van Assche’s innovations with suiting gave birth to the Black Carpet collection at the end of last year; his take on the tuxedo is riddled with criss-cross stitching or erupts in vivid jacquard. The brand’s glossy new Bond Street store, which also debuted last year, houses a tailoring emporium offering more than 600 fabric swatches, with customisation at every stage. "I think we’ve done some experimental things with suits recently," says the designer, "but it would be a mistake to think that that’s the suit of the next 10 years. You need to reinvent to stay relevant."

If the sentiment sounds familiar, it’s also the mantra of one of Van Assche’s biggest champions, Karl Lagerfeld; the lights don’t dim at a Dior Homme show until Lagerfeld – who famously lost 92lb to fit into the brand’s pinched-in suits – takes his seat, usually beside model and muse Marisa Berenson and leather-wearing architect Peter Marino. And like Lagerfeld, Van Assche isn’t one for navel-gazing or retrospection. "I’m not a looking-back kind of person," he says. "Things in my house go back maybe one year and that’s it. I’m aware of the journey I’ve been on with the house and how we’ve evolved, but I’m not tied to the past. Fashion today moves so fast – it’s like someone pressed the accelerator."

It’s a pace that has served him well; Van Assche left the northern Flemish town of Londerzeel (like many who find their way to art school, he alludes to "not fitting in"), where his mother worked as a secretary, his father in the car industry, to study at the acclaimed Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, following in the footsteps of Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. He landed an internship at Yves Saint Laurent’s men’s division purely as a way to get to Paris, he says. His intention was to use it as a springboard to other things; happily, something clicked.

With old fashion systems crumbling – the blending of men’s and women’s shows into one schedule – and a general feeling of tumult throughout the industry, does he feel the need to court the smartphone-wielding millennials? "I find that whole thing interesting," says Van Assche. "In terms of something like Instagram, there’s no value to the creative process in seeing me on a beach with a cocktail. You can’t compress that kind of working method into one square image."

You won’t find Van Assche taking selfies of his sculpted cheekbones like Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, in other words (although he does have great bone structure). He’s private and methodical, not a Snapchat-happy showman, but he is content for the Dior Homme man to rabble-rouse on his behalf. "Dior Homme has always been the little brother of this huge, feminine institution. He’s been in the shade in the past, but now… now we’re making some hardcore noise."

Source: telegraph.co.uk