Kim Jones Pioneered Athleisure. So What’s Next?
Long before it was universally cool to rock sneakers with expensive dresses or cozy sweatshirts became more essential to high-fashion wardrobes than a crisp, slim-fitting shirt, there was designer Kim Jones. The men’s style director at Louis Vuitton since 2011, Jones began his career in London with a namesake label that he launched right after graduating from Central St. Martins in 2003 (his thesis collection was purchased, in entirety, by none other than John Galliano). Jones made his mark on the fashion world, gaining notoriety for filling his runways with shiny athletic tech fabrics, oversized T-shirts, baggy pants, big sneakers, and puffer vests. He collaborated with soccer brand Umbro for eight years on a capsule collection of fashionable sportswear, and won the British Fashion Council award for menswear in both 2006 and 2009. In the decade-plus since he began, it’s been impossible not to notice his influence on a whole crop of street savvy Brit designers (Nasir Mazhar, Martine Rose, Craig Green), skater-friendly creative directors like Demna Gvasalia and Virgil Abloh, and, more broadly, an entire generation who think of sweats as formalwear. Even Céline Dion wore an oversized Vetements hoodie while attending couture week in Paris this month. Read more at Yahoo News.
