Kim Jones Is Stepping Down From Dior Men

Kim Jones is stepping down from his role as artistic director of menswear at Dior, the house announced today. “I am 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,” said Delphine Arnault, chairman and CEO of Dior, in a statement.

“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,” Jones added.

The British designer has been at the helm of Dior Men since 2018. His last show for the house, just a week ago, was followed not only by rave reviews but also a knighthood: the designer was awarded France’s highest distinction, the chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by Vogue’s Anna Wintour at Paris’s Le Laurent, in front of a crowd that included Gwendoline Christie, Robert Pattinson, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy O Harris, Chitose Abe, Rick Owens and Delphine Arnault.

Jones also holds an OBE, which he received from Queen Elizabeth II in October 2020. Earlier that year, he had succeeded the late Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi, where, until October 2024, he designed womenswear, haute couture and fur. Jones shares with his predecessor a passion for collecting as well as a “voracious lust for knowledge and a curiosity that’s astounding”, Wintour noted in her opening remarks at last week’s knighthood ceremony.

Prior to his appointment at Dior Men, Jones served as artistic director of Louis Vuitton Men’s from 2011 to 2018. He was the engine behind the 2017 Louis Vuitton X Supreme collaboration, which many regard as a landmark moment for streetwear. “The distinguishing mark of a great designer is to transform complexity into something that just looks simply and inevitably right,” wrote Vogue’s Sarah Mower at the time, adding that “this collection had that talent stamped all over it.” “We raised [streetwear] up to something that was very luxurious,” said Jones himself of the collaboration in a recent interview with Vogue Business’s Laure Guilbault.

At Dior Men, Jones continued to explore collaborations – with artists like Daniel Arsham and Kaws, as well as fellow designers and fashion brands, including Shawn Stussy, Erl’s Eli Russell Linnetz, and Stone Island. “Everything is togetherness: supporting, collaborating, lifting up,” said Wintour about Jones. “He has also made a habit throughout his enormously successful career — first with his own label, then at Dunhill, then Louis Vuitton, then at Fendi and Dior – of happily sharing the spotlight with others,” she added.

Alaïa’s New Paris Store Is Inspired By Its Concept Of “Second Skins”

Today, a new Alaïa flagship opens on Paris’s famed Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the third in a trilogy of Parisian addresses that includes boutiques on Rue de Moussy and Rue de Marignan. The new location was designed by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the Japanese duo behind the Sanaa firm, winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010, who drew inspiration from the maison’s concept of “second skins,” ie the swooping, wrap-like silhouettes that highlight and envelop the body. A soft colour palette and a “curve glass façade” that reflects the street creates an environment where “time can stand still.”

Alaïa creative director Pieter Mulier has a great interest in art and design, and used a similar approach to furnish the store as he did in his famed apartment in Antwerp. Philippe Malouin’s thick, puffy Mollo chairs are juxtaposed with sculptures by the American artist and poet Diamond Stingily from her Elephant Memory series, made from steel chains and hand-braided synthetic hair. “It was important for me that this new store had a concept that couldn’t be found anywhere else,” explained Mulier. “We wanted it to be a place of real exchange between fashion, design, art and architecture. Because in my eyes, the idea of dialogue is at the very heart of Alaïa.”

Jack McCollough And Lazaro Hernandez Are Stepping Down As Creative Directors Of Proenza Schouler

In a blow to New York fashion, Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez announced today that they’re leaving the label they founded in 2002 as young graduates of Parsons School of Design. McCollough and Hernandez, whose departure is effective 31 January, will remain on the board and continue to be shareholders, and the brand’s CEO, Shira Suveyke Snyder, who was hired in October, is heading up the search for a new creative director.

“We feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to build such an extraordinary team, some of whom have been with us since day one… We’re confident that we’ve been able to impart some of what fuels us creatively, and through them, Proenza Schouler will continue to evolve in a way that makes sense not only for the brand, but for the moment,” McCollough and Hernandez told Vogue.

“A search for our successor is underway, and it will be fascinating to hear what Proenza Schouler has meant to these individuals: so many memories, so many periods of work… it’s been two decades of collections. We started this company out of our bedroom while still students in school, barely into our twenties. We could never have imagined all those years back the transformative road that was ahead of us. We are lucky to have had an incredible support system around us, both within and outside the company, people who feel like family, and it is because of them that Proenza Schouler is what it is today, and we hope that in some small way, this journey has left a tiny, indelible mark on NY fashion.”

The designers celebrated that 20th anniversary in 2023, inviting Chloë Sevigny, one of their first celebrity fans, to open their autumn/winter show that year. McCollough described it as “our most personal collection yet — less revolving around a theme, [and] more looking at the actual women in our lives: what is it they want?”

Understanding what stylish women want is one of the designers’ strong suits; they’ve cultivated a cool-girl crew that includes stars like Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne, fashion insiders such as Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo and W Magazine editor-in-chief Sara Moonves, and members of the art and literary crowds from Olympia Scarry to Ottessa Moshfegh, who’ve grown up alongside them. That cool factor helped land them the first-ever CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize in 2004. Seamless, the Douglas Keeve-directed feature-length documentary about the competition, earned both designers their first mentions on IMDb.com. They also received numerous accolades from the CFDA over the years, including the 2003 Swarovski Award for Ready-to-Wear [now the Emerging Designer award], the 2009 Accessory Designer of the Year award for their best-selling PS1 bag, and the Womenswear Designer of the Year award in 2007, 2011 and 2013.

The Proenza Schouler origin story abounds with fairytale moments. When Hernandez, still a student, found himself on a plane with Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, he scribbled a note on a napkin and handed it over to her in first class. She was frosty, reportedly, but she passed his note along, and two weeks later, he had an internship at Michael Kors. (McCollough, for his part, worked at Marc Jacobs while still at school.) Fast-forward to their graduation in 2002: Julie Gilhart, then Barneys’s fashion director and a stalwart fashion scout, was in the crowd and liked what she saw so much she bought the collection for the agenda-setting New York department store.

Now, McCollough and Hernandez leave behind a brand rooted in American sportswear; though they’ve leaned into power tailoring and goddess dressing since the pandemic, their most recognisable hits include a dip-dyed velvet day dress, pleated midi-skirts, tie-dyed tees, and those still-iconic-all-these-years-later bustier tops and dresses.

Looking back at that Seamless documentary, of their nine fellow finalists, only one is still showing on the runway (Libertine’s Johnson Hartig). McCollough and Hernandez have faced their fair share of hurdles, as well, from investor troubles to a run of shows in Paris that, rather than catapult them to the big leagues they longed to join, ended after two seasons. Proenza Schouler is part of the New York establishment now, but they’ve held onto their “cool kids” image. And so the designers’ abrupt exit is guaranteed to fuel speculation about their next moves — they’re only in their mid-forties, after all.

A popular rumour — in an industry that seems to be feeding on them these days — names them as successors to Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, who has, in turn, been rumoured to be headed to Dior. The designers didn’t respond to a question about these rumours. In any case, they’re certainly leaving a hole in this season’s fashion week calendar. Asked if they are leaving the door open to one day return to their positions as creative directors of Proenza Schouler, McCollough and Hernandez said, “Who knows what the future holds for any of us, but after a lot of thought, we feel ready to turn the page on this chapter in our lives… We are the people that we are because of the extraordinary individuals we’ve met and the unforgettable experiences we’ve had through the work we do. We feel an immense sense of gratitude. Proenza Schouler has been the defining story of our lives until now, but we have always believed that a life well-lived should consist of multiple and diverse chapters and to date, we’ve only had one. We look forward to seeing what the future holds and will continue to dream big and be open to whatever comes our way.”

Big picture: New York has a creative director job opening — a rare occasion here. “We are searching for a visionary leader who can seamlessly pick up where Jack and Lazaro have left off and honour the brand codes they have developed,” Suveyke Snyder told Vogue. “This person should have the love for concept, technique and craftsmanship that will push us forward into our next chapter.” And, “our global search will accelerate now that this news has been made public. With an extraordinary atelier and a world-class studio, we expect a seamless transition as we identify a new design lead and set timelines for the future.”