The collection was inspired by gardens
Continuing his celebration of the 75th anniversary of Dior this year, Kim Jones staged a spring/summer 2023 men’s show fusing the gardens of Christian Dior in Normandy and Granville with his own fascination with Charleston, the Sussex home of the Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant. “We are mixing the utilitarian, natural and gardening elements with stylised New Look and Duncan Grant artworks – an idea of the casual with the formal at once. There is an idea of the passage of time, the changing weather and light of the seasons, as well as continuity, artistic community and the legacy of Christian Dior,” he said.
The show set evoked the childhood home of Christian Dior
The show unfolded in a garden set populated with bright green grass and flowers, against a backdrop resembling Christian Dior’s pastel pink childhood home in Granville. “Granville and Mr Dior’s garden impacts the entire collection,” Jones explained. “There is the idea of a private, countryside life, lived casually in more utilitarian clothes – focused on gardening, walking and fishing – contrasted at the same time with the more elegant and formal Dior codes.” Those contrasts were present throughout silhouettes founded in the slightly technical, slightly sporty, and very outdoor clothes that felt innately Kim Jones.
It was outdoor-wear through a Dior lens
Jones married camouflage performance-wear, backpacks and wellies with romantic oversized and sportified tailoring that was virtually picnic-appropriate – although you might want to keep its delectable fabrication off the grass. Handsome Bar jackets – Dior’s holy grail – in sheer silk organza looked as if veiled over their own construction in filters of dusty greys and pretty pastels that evoked the colours of Granville. They were paired with shorts either tailored or tight and sporty, layered with short shorts. Styled with garments printed or woven in the motifs of Duncan Grant’s paintings, it made for a sweet and lighthearted expression.
It was an ode to Duncan Grant
Often, the collection felt very English, a testament to Jones’s affection for Grant and the Bloomsbury Group. “I first went to Charleston when I was 14-years-old – it had a major impact on me. It just struck me how modern they all were, each of those individuals involved in Bloomsbury who were attached to Charleston,” the designer said. “It was primarily how they lived and worked in one place and how intense that connection was, resulting in the varying aesthetics in different mediums that were produced because of it.”
The theme inspired a wealth of accessories
On the accessories front, the show made a strong proposition for hats – the gardening type, of course – worn over, or perhaps fused with, caps whose visors poked out underneath the brim. Trekking and hiking boots and latticed sandals joined Jones’ wellies as contenders for the new summer it-shoes, while bum bags and sporty sunglasses cemented the outdoorsy mood.
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