When contemporary pop art meets one of the most popular luxury fashion label.
Mr. Kim Jones’ first collection as Artistic Director of Dior Homme for SS19 featured a highly anticipated and hyped collaboration with contemporary pop artist Kaws, known for blurring the lines between fine and commercial art. This set the tone for the new brand direction Jones has been taking with the Maison since then, both in terms of collaboration with other artists and giving a more popular appeal to the brand. While riding the wave of fashion and art collaborations, by choosing to work with Kaws, Jones gave the collection a more approachable appeal to speak to younger generations and a wider audience. If artistic collaborations are often used to elevate the standard of the garments, this collaboration does the opposite by making a traditionally exclusive label speak to many more people globally.
Mr. Kim Jones, formerly at Louis Vuitton Homme and already under the LVMH umbrella, is known within the fashion industry for his keen interest in art and especially for contemporary, street and popular artists. For him to choose to work with Kaws was therefore rather not surprising. The American Brooklyn-based artist rose to fame thanks to cartoonish figures with X-eyes presented either as paintings or sculptures and even simple consumption objects like plushes, in often vivid colors, creating a universe and a story a la Takashi Murakami. His Companion series speaks to several elements of pop culture from traditional artists to entertainment behemoths like Disney as some of his figures directly quote references like Mickey Mouse or Astroboy.
This medium and the body language he attributes to his mascot allows him to convey several emotional states ranging from loneliness and melancholy to apparent frivolity or even friendship. His work participates in consumer culture and criticizes it as he is showing art can occupy multiple realms but also that anything can be art. This motivation in challenging the status quo between high and low, craft and art, is in line with what Mr. Kim Jones has been insufflating at Dior Homme.
One of his gigantic Companion sculptures was the main attraction of the menswear show. The central piece was a monumental cartoon character called BFF (Best Friend Forever), with a reclining head and signature X-eyes, made of pink and black roses. This was a direct reference to the symbols of the Dior Maison as Christian Dior had a special relationship with roses since his childhood in Granville, as expressed in several of his designs as the “corolle” dresses and his obsession for “femmes fleurs”. The statue was dressed in one of the famous Dior suits, introduced by Heidi Slimane and a menswear staple praised by the likes of the late Karl Lagarfeld since 2000.
The collection itself was a playful reinterpretation of some of the most iconic symbols of the house. The logo got a sporty bubble-font makeover and the bee, referring to the ateliers workers of the Dior studio, got a cartoonish update. Items ranged from sweater to backpacks and streetwear pieces and even a Dior plush, clearly targeting a different audience than the suit buyers, namely, young millennials and Gen-Z as well as the Asian market particularly into streetwear culture. The collection also features a reinterpreted saddle bag with hardware designed by Matthew Williams of ALYX only at the time, and now at the helm of Givenchy, another brand under the LVMH umbrella taking a more streetwear and grunge identity. This repositioning strategy has been praised by LVMH’s management and his success is highlighted in the financial statements of the company.
Since this collaboration, Jones has worked with Raymond Pettibon, Daniel Arsham, Shawn Stussy or Amoako Boafo to cite a few and has clearly set the new artistic direction of the Maison. The collection with Kaws was so successful that they reiterated a year after, showing the massive power a well-designed partnership can have to overturn a brand. Artistic partnerships are a way to adjust the cultural relevance of a Maison and sometimes take a new direction. Whatever the way, the communication impact of such collaborations, magnified by social media and curated presentations, is always immediate and highly impactful, whether or not it is a success and whether or not a certain swath of the audience likes it. Mr. Kim Jones knows it, and now that he has established the new face of the Maison and has been highly successful, as shown by his appointment to Fendi women in 2020 after the passing of Karl Lagerfeld, he is likely to keep on riding the wave. And I am here for it.
mabou 