NEW FRONTIERS
Kim Jones’ deft synthesis of insouciant streetwear and couture craftsmanship is redefining what it means to be a man today and tomorrow.
By LAURA BOLT
Photography SOPHIE CARRE
Few menswear designers these days generate quite as much attention and critical acclaim as Dior’s Kim Jones. At just 39 years old, Jones has already achieved icon status thanks to a visionary style that’s redefining masculinity and what it means for couture fashion to hit the street. He is bringing Dior into the future with bold innovation and quiet confidence, while paying homage to its illustrious past.
Before taking the helm at Dior, Jones earned his stripes at luxury brands like Dunhill and Alexander McQueen. It was through his tenure running menswear at Louis Vuitton, however, that he truly came into his own, infusing the heritage brand with a dose of streetwear cool.
“‘Streetwear is sometimes used as a dirty word”, he has said, “but these things are better made than lots of designer stuff.”
Jones’ artful combination of street style and high fashion has created a moment in men’s fashion that is impossible to ignore. In his world, boundaries seem to blur, with feminine florals meeting masculine tailoring, and insouciant comic book-inspired prints mingling with futuristic metallics. Looking at Jones’ work, it’s easy to tell that his appreciation for skatewear runs deep, but his appreciation for beauty runs deeper.
Growing up, Jones had something of a magpie mentality which continues to inform his work at Dior today. He collects everything from toys to art to avant-garde club clothes from the 1970s, worn by underground luminaries like Leigh Bowery. “Everything you have in life passes through you,” he said. “ You’re only here for a short amount of time.”
This appreciation for the past and how it influences the future makes Jones the perfect poster boy to reflect a generation of men who have all knowledge at their fingertips, a generation that has every past trend available to them to mash up and reimagine. “That excites me, that mix of classic and youth culture. I’ll take something old, take something new, mix it together and see what you get.”
It has become clear that what you get is something incredibly special. Jones’ vision for Dior is something that is informed by the classic sophistication of the past, imbued with bold, graphic, and playful touches of a man who has spent decades collecting and came of age in the era where street style reigns supreme. The mélange of influences Jones has brought to the brand have manifested as a kaleidoscope of old meets new, from sharp-cut suits created using an innovated “metalized” technique that had never beforebeen used on fabric, to graphic oversized bumblebee icons that nod to Dior’s classic logo, and bright florals.
Jones has acknowledged that he uses womenswear as an inspiration for his work at Dior, “We’re looking at women’s wear references, but you pull those forward and they reflect masculine influences...The rest is about tailoring, but you do need to have that element that lifts you up, away from your competitors. What makes Dior Dior is that it’s a couture house.”
With so much attention and money in fast fashion, designers who put in the work are quietly revolutionary, providing a new way of appreciating the art of fabrication and what it means to take pride in your clothes. The conversation about the art of construction in menswear is no longer relegated to discussions about Saville Row, but has been expanded into the street. For Jones, “the skills of artisans working in the Dior atelier are a source of my energy. I’m always thinking of the atelier and the craftspeople. And of course, we’re closely connected with factories where items are also produced, but the work of the craftspeople is indeed extraordinary.”
One other notable aspect of Jones’ work, and the one that’s most reminiscent of renowned womenswear couture, is how he expands the idea of fashion into the expression of an art form.
It’s an old trope that high fashion is wearable, moveable art, but menswear has traditionally been bound by a sense of formality or functionality. Jones, however, takes inspiration from Dior’s rich history in the art world. Christian Dior himself “was a gallerist who worked with Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and lots of artists who were famous while alive. I wanted to do that for the digital generation,” he said.
Jones, who studied photography at Camberwell College of Arts in London before attending Central Saint Martins for menswear design, also works with contemporary artists to both inspire and capture the zeitgeist in his designs. At Dior, he has collaborated with punk provocateur Raymond Pettibon, an illustrator who has worked with bands like Black Flag and Sonic Youth. Emblazoned on shirts, jackets, and beaded vests, the juxtaposition of Pettibon’s graphic novel-style illustrations create a sense of brash romanticism that is typical of Jones’ work. Before Pettibon, Jones worked with street artist KAWS and futuristic illustrator Hajime Sorayama. The carefully curated work that Jones does feels born not just of respect, but a genuine sense of almost adolescent fandom and enthusiasm. As a designer, he has wisely taken advantage the modern culture of collaboration, but infused it with Dior’s history of artistic exploration.
Jones’ work at Dior has made him a trailblazer in a moment when men’s fashion is being taken more seriously than ever. The blend of high technique and streetwear inspiration both elevates and democratizes fashion for men, proving that there is art to be made out of the shifting male identity. It points to a philosophy of abiding respect for tradition and craftsmanship, but with an eye that brings couture out of the ivory tower.
