Friday afternoon in Paris was a big one for the British designer Kim Jones. The artistic director not only presented his latest menswear collection for Dior, he also collected the prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, a rarity for someone from outside France. In a fashion moment par excellence, the award was presented to him by Anna Wintour, becoming a knight in the process.
Jones has been at Dior for six years, designing the brand’s menswear collections. During that time, he has explored the brand’s rich archive and also personal interests, including TS Eliot’s The Waste Land and Vanessa Bell’s house Charleston in east Sussex. This show was no different. It took Christian Dior’s mid-50s Ligne H collection as its jump-off, but made Casanova – the 18th-century Italian author known for his multiple relationships with women – its muse.
If Casanova is often seen as a “ladies’ man”, Jones played with that phrase in terms of gender fluidity. The show notes explained that it translated as “a mix of the masculine and the feminine … together with the excesses of the 18th century, found in the idea of the extravagant dresser”. Tropes that might traditionally be seen more a part of the womenswear lexicon – sparkles, pink, bows, boat necks and long skirts – were here worn by men. It was an elegant collection with a smattering of subversion.
Dior was also in the spotlight beyond Paris this week – in a context where any concept of gender fluidity would be given short shrift. Ivanka Trump wore an outfit from the women’s collection (designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri) for the inauguration of her father, Donald Trump; and the new first lady, Melania, wore Dior for a reception at the weekend. LVMH, Dior’s parent company, also gave its allegiance to tTrump: the CEO Bernard Arnault was present at his inauguration, along with two of Arnault’s children, Delphine (the CEO of Dior) and Alexandre, who works with Tiffany Trump.
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Jones announced in October he would be leaving his other role in fashion, designing womenswear and couture at Fendi. His post-show bow at Dior, including a hug for Delphine Arnault in the front row, had people speculating change might be afoot here too. With fashion’s rumour mill in action around the top job at luxury houses including Gucci, Burberry and Margiela, Jones’s name has been in the frame, particularly for Burberry, which has not flourished under its current artistic director, Daniel Lee.
“Kim Jones would be a perfect fit at Burberry,” wrote the influential fashion insider Instagram account boring.com, after the Fendi announcement, “but I doubt if LVMH will let him go easily or if Burberry can even afford him right now”.
Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honour, has previously been given to big fashion players including Valentino Garavani and Diane von Fürstenberg, as well as Delphine. Before the ceremony, Jones described it as a “life milestone”, though he said notoriety was not his endgame.
“I get stopped by people [in the street] and that’s always nice, but generally I prefer being able to get on with my daily life,” said Jones.
With speculation swirling, he will no doubt want to end the rumours and get on with the job, whatever that job may be.
