Kim Jones

Kim Jones

Evolutionary

What do we really know about Kim Jones? The current generation knows only to credit the London-born designer with making labels like Supreme and Fragment Design regular parts of the luxury fashion lexicon, when the mere idea would have been laughable just five years ago. It’s easy to envision a pivotal figure such as Jones, magicking these zeitgeist-defining moments into being with the kind of panache usually reserved for the most hysterical of fashion caricatures. Yet the shy, mild-mannered designer—affectionately described as “one of the nicest people in fashion”—is anything but flashy. While well-spoken, you get the feeling he’s a little uncomfortable when locked in place for too long. His body seems to gravitate elsewhere as he speaks, perhaps to fiddle with a jacket or journey to a country most people have never heard of. A childhood spent travelling around Africa and South America with his family has imbued the designer with a lifelong habit of chasing far-flung destinations, along with an intimate love for the natural world and its cultural richness. It’s unsurprising that growing up on the road would result in an eternally-hungry mind that takes in new sights with uncritical enthusiasm. The designer’s passion for collecting—he admittedly has 600-700 pairs of Jordans crammed into the cupboards of his Paris apartment—is

simply the physical manifestation of an encyclopedic brain, full to bursting with myriad objects and ideas. With so much information stored away, it’s not hard to see why he has an unmatched eye for coupling the most unlikely elements, creating what then goes on to become the most obvious unions we can’t imagine ourselves without.

Along with such ingrained bazaar-trawling instincts and passion for artifacts comes his preference to shine the spotlight on things he loves, rather than himself—even if it’s during his own debut as Dior’s new menswear director. Case in point: thousands of pink-and-white blooms, comprising a gargantuan KAWS BFF sculpture, taking center stage at Jones’ first show for Dior. The decision to work with KAWS could not have been a more Jonesesque move—Brian Donnelly’s cultural cache within both fine art and streetwear circuits reflects Kim’s own position of having a sneakered foot perfectly placed on both ends of the spectrum. “I think KAWS is the most influential artist for millennials apart from Takashi Murakami. I think he’s super chic and his work speaks universally to everyone; it’s an instant reaction and this is something amazing, when you think about the reach of influence these days,” Jones says. He then cheerfully mentions the iconic bee logo, which he had

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also entrusted KAWS with re-designing for the season. “The result is a very cute bee!”

Dior has historically employed a roster of star designers who have indulged both its women’s and menswear divisions in every flamboyant creed, from the sensual drama at the hands of a 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent, to baroque Amazons who ripped through the runways under John Galliano, to the adroit pallor, skinny suits and cigarette smoke during Hedi Slimane’s tenure at Dior Homme. The maison itself has been so effusively piloted by the checkered genius of its previous directors that many have forgotten that the label’s founder originally rose to fame with the simple elegance and luxurious construction of his designs. “It’s all Dior, pre-Dior really,” said Jones, in an apt summary of his vision for the label.

His debut collection indeed rushes headlong into the hallowed halls of old-school Dior: there’s the saddlebag, taken from the It-bag status of the early 00s and updated for menswear in 2019, monogrammed outfits and accessories, floral patterns inspired by Monsieur Dior’s dinnerware—all rendered in a delicate-as-eggshells palette of Dior Grey and Dior Pink. “I was really curious—because I always think of the archive as being predominantly a feminine archive. I was inspired by them, and especially by Mr. Dior’s personal interests: gardening, his dogs, his houses and his love for arts,” Jones explains. He creates a mood that harkens back to the maison’s history rather than the brooding looks of his predecessors at Dior Homme. This decision seems a bit strange for menswear until you realize that Jones is just not that interested in the Diorgoing-dark days of recent years. “The collection is very

chic and very elegant. Because that’s what this house is like,” Kim says simply. As evidenced by his time at Louis Vuitton, Jones has a knack for evolving a label to entirely new heights while also remaining stubbornly loyal to its DNA. “Every time I work for a maison, I always play with its codes and the result is always different. So [with Dior] it was taking what the house has done, which is couture and tailoring, and using that into making the new stuff.”

Despite his well-deserved status as one of the industry’s most valuable talents, Kim Jones is not another one of Dior’s star designers. His personal code just doesn’t seem to have enough ego for it. His choice of putting a giant KAWS head in the middle of his debut show, ringed by celebrities and VIPs, creates an exciting centerpiece for the surrounding audience, yet also illustrates exactly

how little the designer cares for the limelight. Some may presume that the individuals in the middle circle might have preferred to enjoy the show in peace, but they are wrong. The small group beamed with pride as their friend’s creations began to encircle them on the runway. This is the enigma of Kim Jones: a soft-spoken man who hates being on camera and with whom it’s almost impossible to gain an interview, yet who is also one of the only designers who can pull off closing his last-ever show at Louis Vuitton with a bright-eyed Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell on each arm, and open his first-ever at Dior with Kate, Naomi and many other household-name friends cheering him on in earnest. It plays out on paper like an ostentatious show of celebrity, yet feels natural in reality because of their close relationships with Jones. He expertly manages to both conduct a grand spectacle

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“ EVERY TIME I WORK FOR A MAISON I ALWAYS PLAY WITH ITS CODES AND THE RESULT IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT.”

and fastidiously shun the spotlight for himself—hell-bent instead on showing things that he deems more worthy— while effectively stamping Dior onto our consciousness in a dozen gentle ways.

The designer is nonchalant when we ask about streetwear influences on his work, saying, “It’s my impression of what the house is. I don’t even like the word ‘street.’ I don’t believe in it, because everyone wears clothes on the street. So how can you say ‘that’s street’ and ‘that’s not street’, when it’s worn on the same street?” His collection still exhibits luxury sportswear touches, such as buckle hardware dreamed up by Matthew Williams of ALYX and double-brimmed caps that echo the saddlebag’s silhouette, yet Jones’ main focus for 2019 remained on Dior’s roots in tailoring and couture. The end product was, Jones says with satisfaction, “sportswear with a couture finish.” The phrase seems easy enough to digest until a Google search for “couture sportswear” rewards inquisitive minds with a mere two entries on athleisure and many more others which bear Juicy Couture in all its velour glory. The knife-edged, techy fabrics of the former and the hot-pink tracksuits of the latter are nothing like what Kim Jones has done at Dior so far—a seamless assemblage made from generations of expert tailoring and couturier techniques, set to the cadence of American sportswear: a cloud-like feathered blouse, each feather meticulously trimmed to fronds of various sizes and organized by length just so; leather bags and trench coats, laser-cut in the cannage, or rattan, woven patterns that adorned Monsieur Dior’s furniture; generously-cut suits reminiscent of 1950s-era Dior.

Though Jones himself may be reluctant to call his work revolutionary, his time at Louis Vuitton has heralded the label—and subsequently the fashion industry as a whole—into a new era of luxury that segues effortlessly into streetwear without seeming feigned or forced. The way he

chooses to build upon the natural grain of a fashion house makes his work take on a meaning that reaches beyond his own reputation and designs—leaving the maison to continue on after his departure, just a little bit different than it was before he arrived. Just as fashion is evolving more quickly than ever with the usual luxury-streetwear offerings, Jones is evolving it still further at Dior with a possible reprise of gentleman dressing. Pulling on Jones’ latest creations feels languid, thoughtful, somehow less gregarious than the current standard of a “killer fit.” Much as how Christian Dior himself was credited with creating “The New Look,” a silhouette that returned a sense of elegance, luxury and joie de vivre to fashion for women in the post-WWII climate, Jones may have rekindled an interest in looking more sophisticated for 2019. Perhaps we’re ready to put the ugly-chic phase behind us once and for all. Just as how Kim Jones quietly made luxury streetwear a reality we now take for granted, he’s once again this industry’s unassuming shepherd as it begins to mature into something more.