KIM JONES TAPS KAWS FOR FIRST DIOR MEN’S CAMPAIGN

Kim Jones’ first campaign as artistic director of Dior menswear features the emblematic KAWS-created “BFF” character dressed in a Christian Dior suit, echoing the monumental centerpiece the New York-based artist constructed for the summer 2019 show in Paris.

Captured by American photographer Steven Meisel, the campaign features Jones’ new masculine designs for the storied French house.

In sequences of soft and sharp shades of pink, this wardrobe unfolds in bright tones, illuminated with yellow, blending the codes of haute couture, tailoring and sportswear, reinforcing the dialogue between art and fashion, heritage and daring. Iconic motifs held dear by the founding couturier are tweaked with a sense of nonchalant humor. The bee, Toile de Jouy, the Dior oblique canvas, or cannage in laser-cut form, are freely employed, reinvented and re-visited with the subtle mastery of re-appropriation that is one of Jones’ signatures.

Filmed by Jackie Nickerson, the summer 2019 campaign video further distills this creative, communicative energy and the neo-romanticism with which Jones has infused the new Dior man. “I wanted this advertising to reflect the spirit of the summer show and the beauty of Dior,” said Jones.