Kim Jones was planning on unveiling his Dior Males pre-fall assortment in Hong Kong on March 23. The present was going to comply with the mannequin of the home’s runway spectacle in Egypt in December of 2022 till it was postponed indefinitely final month. Jones is presenting the gathering by way of this lookbook as an alternative.
“Class” and “effortlessness” are key phrases to understanding Jones’s most up-to-date collections at Dior Males. Proper out of the gate, however notably in his most up-to-date fall lineup, Jones concocted a softer tackle refined menswear. On the heart of this imaginative and prescient was, and nonetheless is, his suiting. This pre-fall lineup is “about simplicity and class by ease,” Jones stated, evoking concepts of fluidity and loucheness, and “the pleasure of dressing.”
Jones name-checked the legacies of Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent in his notes, harkening again to fluid suitings created with decisive but forgiving cuts that outlined the physique and helped outline magnificence within the second half of the twentieth century. On this assortment, Jones additionally expanded on the couture fabrications he launched for fall, the place he referenced Monsieur Dior’s 1950 “Debussy” robe, by extrapolating the striped embroidery from the home’s 1952 “Pépite” costume and Saint Laurent’s floral embroidery of 1958 and making use of them to alluring shirting.
Right here, Jones utilized tie fastenings—taken from Saint Laurent’s “Trapèze” assortment—and utilized them to shirts in lieu of plackets and onto relaxed interpretations of the vest. These fabrications yielded Jones’s first true iteration of the three-piece go well with at Dior, but the silhouette is extra evocative of a simple gown over a simple shirt than a constricting #menswear three-piece. They emphasize Jones’s tackle up to date menswear magnificence, which softens the person fairly than armor him.
Elsewhere, Jones created a reasonably magnificent floating scarf lapel impact on his slouchy overcoats and jackets, and layered organza below wide-legged shorts in a playful but compelling reference to the ballgowns his predecessors provided on the Dior salons. With Capote’s swans the discuss of the second, concepts of mid-century fashion have resurfaced. These are nearly completely utilized to womenswear, with luxurious menswear lowered to their companion, however not for Jones.
Certainly, what’s most compelling about Jones’s reinterpretation of mid-century glamour is to see what this primness seems like within the context of up to date menswear. At Dior Males at the moment, sartorial sophistication is equal elements magnificence and pragmatism, opulence and utility. Hooked up to classicality but indifferent from conventional masculinity. It’s fairly thrilling to see it unfold.
