Kim Jones is stepping down from his position as artistic director of menswear at Dior for the Men’s Ready-to-Wear and Accessory collections a week after Dior Fall 2025 Menswear at Paris Fashion Week following which he was awarded France’s highest civilian decoration, Légion d’Honneur.
Dior officially announced Kim Jones’ departure from Dior Homme
Earlier today, Dior officially announced Kim Jones’ departure from Dior Homme. Delphine Arnault, Chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, said she was “extremely grateful for the remarkable work done by Kim Jones, his studio, and the ateliers. With all his talent and creativity, he has constantly reinterpreted the house’s heritage with genuine freedom of tone and surprising, highly desirable artistic collaborations.”
In a brief statement, Jones said, “It was a true honour to have been able to create my collections within the House of Dior, a symbol of absolute excellence. I express my deep gratitude to my studio and the ateliers who have accompanied me on this wonderful journey. They have brought my creations to life. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the artists and friends I have met through my collaborations. Lastly, I feel sincere gratitude towards Bernard and Delphine Arnault, who have given me their full support.”
Where is Jones planning to go? Or, perhaps, would he consider reviving his own label? “If I did it, I’d do it in a very different way. It’d be a complete lifestyle. It wouldn’t be just clothing. The things that people are really looking to spend money on is their home and travel,” he told Vogue Business last week.
The legacy of Kim Jones
Kim Jones attended London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design where he graduated with an MA in Menswear. His graduation show was a hit, which inspired him to launch his eponymous label and the debut collection was presented at London Fashion week in 2003. Following a collaboration as designer for British high street sportswear brand Umbro, Jones designed for Topman, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Alfred Dunhill and a few others.
Kim Jones built a stellar reputation as one of the leading menswear designers during his tenure as Creative Director at Louis Vuitton from 2011 to 2018. He exited his role as men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton in January 2018, after revolutionising the house’s menswear with a distinctive, streetwear-inflected interpretation of luxury fashion. And joined Dior as Artistic Director of Dior for the Men’s Ready-to-Wear and Accessory.
In March 2018, it was announced he would be joining Dior Men as artistic director, showing his first collection in June 2018. In September 2020, the British designer followed in the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, becoming Fendi‘s artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women, while remaining at the helm of Dior Men.
Despite inexperience with womenswear, Kim Jones’ tenure at Fendi was successful. Per WWD: ‘Donatella Versace designed a Fendi collection and Jones a Versace lineup for pre-fall 2022 retailing… In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a collection within Fendi’s spring 2023 women’s collection that was shown during New York Fashion Week, and also teamed with Tiffany and Co. for special Baguette handbags. He followed up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration under the new “Friends of Fendi” banner.’
At the time, LVMH released a statement: “Kim Jones made significant contributions to the brand’s creative legacy, seamlessly integrating his modern and cross-cultural aesthetics with Fendi’s historical heritage. Under his leadership, the maison reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, offering an inclusive and innovative approach to fashion that constantly renewed Fendi’s Italian codes. Throughout his four years, Jones’ work was wholly guided by passion and creativity.”
In October 2024, Jones announced that he was stepping down from his role at the Roman fur and leather goods house to ‘concentrate fully’ on his role as menswear artistic director at Dior. Until today.
Dior at Paris Fashion Week
Dior menswear masterfully shifted between periods and silhouettes, with men’s couture integrated into the ready-to-wear line. There were satin blouses with balloon sleeves, a monastic coat worn as a long skirt, open-neck sweaters and jackets with raised drawstring collar and buckled sleeves, the trench and the opera coat. A play of volume is seen throughout, from fitted to flared; a nod to gender inclusive fashion. Though Jones uses silk and satin, the silhouettes are stripped back through controlled drapery. The main embroidery is taken from Dior Spring 1948 haute couture and the bows, spotted on the footwear and the back of opera coats, support gender fluidity.
Dior Homme AW 2025 at Paris Fashion Week
The figure of Casanova dominates the collection steeped in the excesses of the eighteenth century, the extravagant man and the motif of the mask i.e. the blindfold worn by the male models. Per WWD: ‘Back in the 18th century, it was not unusual to see fashionable men sporting brightly colored silk damask coats. Jones channeled that idea with belted kimono jackets and a pink satin robe embroidered with a motif borrowed from Dior’s Pondichéry dress from 1948.’
“We wanted to go back to the roots and concentrate on the quintessence of the house. There is a sense of fashion history, particularly the history of menswear, running through this collection. The shift from something quite ornate and extravagant in the eighteenth century to something more linear and utilitarian in the nineteenth… Yet, while a lot refers to the history of fashion, this is not historical fashion. Ultimately, in this collection, we wanted to say something about now,” explains Kim Jones in the press release.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
