While fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier has been a longstanding collaborator for Dior (he shot a whole book of couture back in 2011), he has never photographed Dior Homme – until artistic director Kris Van Assche tapped him to shoot the new Black Carpet Spring 2018 collection. 

An ongoing capsule, the collection reworks the classic evening suit and acts as a continuation of the SS18 collection that focussed on youth. “The idea was to convey the energy and the dark rave sensibility of the runway collection on a capsule collection of eveningwear,” Van Assche told us. All “while playing with the embellishment codes and know-how of Dior.”

The looks give a new edge to traditional tailoring, neatly tying into Van Assche’s Spring 2018 mainline aim of reinventing the suit for a younger generation. “I felt a real demand on eveningwear,” he explained when discussing his inspiration behind the capsule collection. “I found a real possibility to be creative by mixing the codes and disturbing a little bit the rules of the classic and traditional evening wear.”

The accompanying images – shot by Demarchelier – see the embellished and updated eveningwear looks shot in a moody black and white. “We worked very closely with Patrick Demarchelier,” the designer said of their first collaboration. “It was very interesting to have his vision on the collection.”

View the collection in the gallery above.