DIOR FALL 2023 MEN’S COLLECTION

by John Russel Jones

Kim Jones presented a Dior collection this weekend that could inspire the costume designer of the next chapter of the movie Dune. With transparent organdy-like pieces that seemed to swirl around the models’ bodies like a genie, to a palette of ivories, grays, taupes, and sands with pops of yellow, orange, and blue taken from a sunset, the collection, though dramatic, actually looked comfortable, wearable, and salable. A wool “demi-kilt” originated from the bias pleated skirt of a Dior women’s design from the 1950s, lending some real swagger to a gender-bending concept.

The setting was certainly dramatic enough: The fashion show was in Giza, Egypt, running just as the sun set behind the Great Pyramid.

In the show’s press release, Jones said, “My interest in ancient Egypt is about the stars and the sky. It’s that fascination with the ancient world and the parallels with what we look at today; what we inherited from them and what we are still learning from the past. it links to Christian Dior in that sense and by way of his fascination with symbols and superstitions that recur throughout his life and work, one of which is the star. in both the collection and the show there is an idea of ‘guided by the stars’ and what that can entail in many ways. it’s about how the past shapes the future or an idea of the future from the past.”