Dior menswear: Kim Jones’ new look

Kim Jones was appointed creative director of Dior Homme in March 2018, a mere few weeks following his departure at Louis Vuitton. Last weekend in Paris, the Central Saint Martins-trained designer made his Dior debut, presenting the brand's Spring 2019 menswear collection in Paris.

For the occasion, Dior pitched a round tent at La Garde Républicaine, historical home to the ceremonial unit of the French National Gendarmerie, on the right bank of the river Seine. At the tent's centre rose a 12-metre-high floral version of BFF, the fantastical teddy-bear like creature dreamt up by American artist and designer Brian Donnelly, better known as Kaws. For his gargantuan sculpture – its full floral coverage required 70,000 real pink flowers in full bloom – Kaws adapted his trademark BFF design slightly to resemble Christian Dior himself; in addition, he cast the founder's pet dog Bobby in white resin. Jones also tasked the artist to imagine a gold bee motif; a Pop art rendition of the brand's insect emblem features a balloon-like body and criss-cross eyes. The bee was just one of the Parisian maison's codes on show, as Jones deftly navigated his way through the brand's many signature details.

The brand's emblematic Cannage cane work pattern found its way on roomy top-handle tote bags, and Jones' introduced a masculine version of the Dior saddle bag. While his predecessors, Hedi Slimane and most recently Kris van Assche, looked to contemporary music, sub-cultures and nightlife for inspiration, Jones sees Monsieur Dior's couture ateliers as the base of his menswear designs. His Spring 2019 collection included couture finishes seldom seen in menswear: feather-work specialist Maison Lesage captured the delicate floral pattern of Monsieur Dior’s porcelain dinner service in miniscule feathers, a toile de jouy pattern in bleached pastels was a mirror-image of the wallpaper that originally set the scene at Dior's 1947 opened boutique, sculpted tailoring loosely followed the shapes of Dior's mid-century couture creations.

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At Louis Vuitton, Jones spearheaded creative collaborations such as a sell-out Supreme capsule collection; for his first offering at Dior, too the designer recruited a roll-call of established and emerging names. Matthew Williams, who established his contemporary luxury brand Alyx in 2015, cast the CD logo into decorative metal clip fastenings; multi-coloured tennis bracelets are the work of Dior Homme's recently appointed jewellery designer Yoon Ambush.