It’s been a while since fashion shows were just a ten-minute parade of clothes. More often they're also concerts (Mumford & Sons performed at the latest Louis Vuitton show, following Jay Z at the spring/summer ’24 affair) or have more celebrities on the front row than editors (Dolce & Gabbana even had billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) or are presented on sets more in line with apocalyptic landscapes than catwalks (cue: Prada’s office-turned-nature reserve).
And while there’s no chance of shows going back to the old way anytime soon, sometimes, a brand can balance the Instagram-worthy theatrics with a message that feels more sentimental than a passing social media snap.
Kim Jones’ autumn/winter ’24 Dior show was a prime example. Yes, there was a rotating, elevating catwalk that had the guests whipping out their phones, but what first took their attention was the photography book left on their assigned seats.
This collection was inspired by ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who was linked to Dior via his dance partner, Margot Fonteyn, a couture client who discovered the house on a trip to Paris in 1948.
Another link in the chain comes via Colin Jones, the creative director’s uncle and ballet dancer, who formed a friendship with Nureyev and then took pictures of him when Jones hung up his ballet shoes and turned to photography.
Everyone attending the show was given a hardback copy of Colin Jones’ 1966 Time Life spread, documenting a day in the life of Nureyev.
(Jones continued his career as a photojournalist well into the seventies, with work published in The Observer, The Independent and The Sunday Times that covers everything from British miners, civil rights activists in the Alabama race riots to second generation Caribbean immigrants as they adapted to a post-Windrush, racist London.)
“My uncle documented amazing things in his work that I would see in books and magazines when I was growing up,” says Kim Jones, over email after the show.
“I would sometimes visit his darkroom where you would see the colour and beauty of something emerge from subjects that were not necessarily beautiful. I think through seeing these things, through snatches and fragments growing up, my personal aesthetic was formed. Seeing a beautiful photograph when you are younger can mean a lot.”
These photographs informed the more down-to-earth interpretation of Nureyev’s style, one that saw his dancing sensibility translated as zipped jumpsuits and shorts in wool melange and second-skin knits, while his off-duty looks came in the form of sixties and seventies suiting (yes, that includes flares), buttery leather and sporty-esque jackets. Ballet flats (which have been oh so en vogue in womenswear as of late) came in multiple quilted, leather and double-strapped iterations.
It was also the first time Jones included couture pieces into his Dior collections.
“Nureyev, alongside being the dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest of all time, was also a collector of very fine things,” Jones says.
“His Paris apartment at 23 Quai Voltaire was filled with incredible objects, particularly his collection of textiles and clothing. The kimonos on the couture side of the collection are a reference to this, one of which is directly based on an antique kimono he owned and wore. The ready-to-wear and the couture both interpret his personal style at times, particular in terms of my uncle’s photography. There is a meeting of this style with the Dior archive.”
This resulted in a glitzier finale than the first half of the collection, primed for any red carpet attendees later in the year. But generally, autumn/winter '24 was a wearable one for its future customers – even for those sceptical of a square-neck belted playsuit. Jones has always been able to balance commerciality with creativity organically, able to juggle having a developed viewpoint of design with attainability for its wearers who have little time for philosophising fashion.
Take his tailoring. Here, his signature office-apropos asymmetric blazers reappear, but sit alongside a deconstructed take on suiting finished with a tie-knot waistline for a nipped silhouette. Pops of colour standout against the mostly dark neutral colour palette, and even the denim two-piece – likely thrown in to please the suiting naysayers – perfects the 'oversized' fit without losing a formed silhouette. Overall, it caters to those who dress playfully as well as more particular, serious sartorialists – much like Nureyev's performances, it's worthy of a standing ovation.
