“From New Look to New Wave,” is how Kim Jones described his fifth-anniversary collection for Dior Men, a celebratory outing that opened with a spectacular coup de théâtre: as a slowed-down version of Primal Scream’s Higher Than the Sun began to play, 51 tiles of the Dior-grey steel floor of the purpose-built venue slid open, with models simultaneously rising from each one like holograms being downloaded on a screen. Usually, there would be a lull of silence as everyone raises their phones; instead, a unanimous round of applause. There was no buffering here. Kim Jones knows how to put on a show, and this one was quintessentially him: a bit sci-fi, a bit couture, and a lot of great clothes and soon-to-be-blockbuster accessories. What more could you need from a fashion show?
“Dior is all about the clothes, at the heart of it is silhouette, shape, technique and fabrication of the very highest order,” Kim explained, clearly keen to avoid any distractions. “I like to think that in my five years of being here, I have not forgotten this.” Indeed, Dior’s menswear has boomed since his arrival, and his influence has been felt in the collections of so many designers: the streetwear and blue-chip artist collabs, the languid-yet-hourglass tailoring, the typically feminine motifs, the luxed-up sportswear, and the constant investigation of the archive to create a menswear wardrobe that rivals any womenswear counterparts. His winning formula has become ubiquitous across the industry, both in womenswear and menswear. Even this week, you can trace the diaphanous trousers, jaunty tailoring, floral brooches and charm-like accessories seen across many menswear collections back to Kim’s studio, which is now responsible for producing more than a dozen collections a year for both Dior Men and Fendi womenswear.
As for the clothes, the big sartorial story with this collection was bouclé for boys. Kim took the traditionally ladies-who-lunch material and gave it the Dior treatment. After all, it was gentlemen who originally wore tweed before Coco Chanel built an empire from dressing women in it. Here, it came microscopically woven with plastic, raffia, sequins, and bugle beads, and transformed into oversized suits with wide trousers — notably going against the grain of the pervasively ultra-high-waisted look seen elsewhere this season — with abbreviated hems perfect for showing off chunky bouclé brogues and sandals, worn with white socks. Many of the fabrics had embroideries of Christian Dior’s cannage motif, the pattern the house founder based on the woven rattan chairs in which guests sat at his legendary ‘New Look’ salon show in 1947. But this being Kim, the ‘New Look’ went a bit ‘New Wave’ with Stabilo-bright fluoro colours jolting through the sea of those classic Dior greys. “It’s my favourite colour combo: grey and neon,” he explained. Stephen Jones created a handful of punk-pop beanies punctuated with a bit of zing, the typical cockades replaced by neon ronghua velvet flowers, created by ateliers in China that have been crafting them since the Tang dynasty.
There were more ladylike motifs — flower corsages, cardigan twinsets, Mitzah Bricard-inspired leopards, pearl necklaces, costume brooches — all seen through the lens of Kim’s sci-fi steel can and a roster of menswear staples: Harrington jackets, polo tops, blinged-out banker’s pinstripes, crew-neck tank tops. It’s what Kim does best, giving classic menswear the couture treatment — and he does it best when there is an undercurrent of British subcultural references. Christian Dior once said that he designs for ‘flower women’; perhaps the greatest and most prescient achievement of Kim’s in the last five years is that he has introduced to us the ‘flower man’. And he’s sure to blossom in years to come.
