Kim Jones' latest runway presentation for the Dior Men Fall Winter 24 collection showed us that the boys can do coquette too.
The House's show in Paris earlier this week was at once poetic and functional: slouching berets and sheer, high-necked blouses, floral scalloped capes and blue-and-white florals becoming bohemian embellishments to what was otherwise a relatively fundamentalist collection of tailored and utilitarian suiting pieces. Ballet motifs are introduced throughout the collection in the form of ballerina flats, which were shown in a swathe of different colourways, and paired with contrasting ribbed socks in bright greens, yellows and greys.
Citing his inspirations for the collection, Jones said, "I had been thinking about the relationship between the ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn and Monsieur Dior. The masculine interpretation of this also involved thinking about her most famous dance partner: Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev is entwined with my personal history because of my uncle, the photographer Colin Jones. Colin had been a ballet dancer, had a friendship with and photographed the star."
The collection was also the first time Jones presented Men's couture for Dior – the collection seen as a separate entity from their regular ready-to-wear collection. Jones continued to say that the collections were about contrast: "the contrasts in the house of Dior in terms of ready-to-wear and haute couture. It’s the difference between onstage and backstage; the life of Nureyev theatrically and in reality. Here it is a meeting of the dancer’s style with that of the Dior archive."
Jones pulled from the House's archives – including the collections of Saint Laurent – to focus on tailoring techniques like vents, pleats and scalloped necklines. As for accessories, plush leather bags – from oversized Macrocannage camera and bum bags – round out the showing with a utilitarian edge.
Posted in the show's front row were a number of notable friends of the house, like Lewis Hamilton, Nicholas Hoult and Kate Moss.
See the full collection and watch the runway video on Dior's website.