Kim Jones admits there is something disorientating about discussing one collection while in the midst of the preparations for another. It is a hot June day in Paris and we are sat, fans whirring, in a Dior showroom a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe. The British designer is surrounded by pieces from his S/S 2025 collection for Dior Men, which he will show the following day. A cluster of ceramic cats by South African artist-potter Hylton Nel, one of the collection’s inspirations, are lined up behind Jones, watching on. The next day in the Val-de-Grâce show space, they will be blown up to enormous size, populating the catwalk in surreal style.
But the subject of the conversation is his A/W 2024 collection, which arrives in stores this September and was shown this past February on a rotating circular runway that eventually rose from the floor like an enormous music box. One gets the sense that Jones – a designer whose work is in constant forward movement, famously organised and often working several collections in advance – is not someone prone to looking backwards. For starters, he doesn’t have time to. As creative director of Dior Men, as well as artistic director of Fendi womenswear and couture, he produces around 30 collections a year, splitting his time between London, Paris and Rome.
