Jennifer Livingston

THERE WAS A TIME, somewhere around the mid-2010s, when the fashion industry began to question the relevance of the traditional fashion show in the digital age. The doubt was short-lived. Instead of scrapping the concept, bigger brands hit on the idea of supercharging it: They started picking ever-more- exotic locations to impress not only the gathered VIPs but also the wider world watching on TikTok and Instagram.

Which is how, at the end of 2022, Kim Jonesā€”the British designer at the head of Dior Men since 2018ā€”found himself in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza for the unveiling of his fall 2023 collection. ā€œI wanted to focus on the historical aspect and what a place like this means to the world,ā€ Jones says. ā€œAfter all, the Great Pyramid is one of the Seven Wonders of the Worldā€”the only one that remains. I think it was a major moment in the history of fashion.ā€

Jennifer Livingston

And then there are the clothes themselves, available soon and perfectly suited to a place like Giza, where the human and the cosmic converge. Feminine ideas from Diorā€™s long couture history blend with futuristic-looking menswear in a palette of desert greys and sands. Materials range from classic cloths derived from Diorā€™s womenswear to experimental stuff like anodised metals and injection-moulded trims. There is a layered fluidity to the collection, lending a sense of ease to even the most out-there pieces. It feels both of its time and completely outside of it.

Jennifer Livingston
Jennifer Livingston
Clothing and accessories (above and throughout) by Dior Men | Jennifer Livingston

For fans of Jones, this shouldnā€™t come as a surprise. After an itinerant childhood that took him from London to Africa, South America, and the Caribbeanā€”he still considers travel a major source of inspirationā€”he made a name for himself with an eponymous line of streetwear alongside a collection he created with Umbro in the early 2000s. More than ten years before street became the watchword in high fashion, Jones recognised the power of designing elevated versions of the tracksuits and sweats he knew from his club days in London. Heā€™s a cultural polymath with wide-ranging tastes, and his approach is eclectic and unpredictable.

Jennifer Livingston
Jennifer Livingston
Jennifer Livingston

Jones is as likely, for instance, to draw on Kerouac (the Beat generation was his inspiration for one recent collection) as on the costumes of ā€™80s London club star Leigh Bowery. As a result, both his clothes and his shows often veer away from the expected, like the time Robert Pattinson and Gwendoline Christie read T. S. Eliotā€™s ā€œThe Waste Landā€ in lieu of the usual runway soundtrack. ā€œFashionā€™s really great and I love working with it, but I think nowadays you need a bit more than that,ā€ Jones says. ā€œIā€™m much more into culture than fashion in terms of the way things reach people.ā€

Jennifer Livingston

That doesnā€™t mean that fashion is a footnote, especially at a maison with a rich history, like Dior. The archives are a jumping-off point, but not simply for rehashes of old designs. Rather, Jones looks to the techniques that made the house of Christian Dior famous in the first place. Hence the couture elements in this latest collection. The joy of his designs lies in the back-and-forthā€”in the interplay, be it cultural or temporal. ā€œItā€™s about the past shaping the future,ā€ he says. ā€œOr an idea of the future from the past.ā€

Jennifer Livingston
Jennifer Livingston

Photography by Jennifer Livingston; Styling By Alfonso FernƔndez Navas.

This article originally appeared on Esquire US.