British designer Kim Jones is to exit his role as artistic director of womenswear and couture at Italian house Fendi, it has been announced this afternoon (11 October 2024). He is set to continue as artistic director of Dior Men, another house in the LVMH stable, the statement confirmed.
Jones began his tenure at Fendi in 2020, filling the role which had been vacant after the death of Karl Lagerfeld in February 2019. His collections for Fendi reimagined the house’s Roman roots in the designer’s sleek, contemporary style, while references to his own fixations – among them the work of the Bloomsbury group – were woven throughout. In the statement, Fendi says he was ‘guided by passion and creativity... constantly renewing the house’s codes’.
‘Kim Jones is a highly talented designer who has brought his unique and multicultural vision to Fendi over the past four years,’ says Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH. ‘I would like to thank him for his contribution and look forward to continuing to witness his creativity for Dior Men.’
Kim Jones is leaving Fendi
His final show for the house took place this past September (2024), with Jones presenting a collection that looked back to the 1920s, the decade in which Fendi was founded (2025 will mark the house’s centenary year). ‘The foundations of how women dress today and, in many ways, how we think are in the 1920s. It’s about modernity in style and attitude,’ he said.
‘There [was a] modernism in dress, design, decoration and thought. We approached the collection with these things in mind, as an amalgam of epochs, moods and techniques – then and now,’ he continued. As a final flourish, an enormous white box opened in the centre of the runway at the end of the show, revealing a tableau of models inside. Now, it feels like a fitting finale.
As yet, there is no announcement about Jones’ successor, though it adds to a growing number of vacancies at fashion’s major houses – among them Chanel and Dries Van Noten. Fendi says that ‘a new creative organisation for Fendi will be announced in due time’.
