Dior Men’s artistic director, Kim Jones, presents for the first time this season the men’s haute couture collection, as a separate, parallel but intertwined entity with the ready-to-wear. The collections explore, through the figure of the dancer Nureyev, the idea of two lived lives. Independent of each other, they both embody at their core rigor, excellence, ease, and discipline.
“The relationship between the ballerina Margot Fonteyn and Monsieur Dior was something I often thought about. The male interpretation of it also involved thinking about his most famous dance partner: Rudolf Nureyev. The dancer is connected to my personal history due to my uncle, the photographer Colin Jones. Colin had been a dancer, was a friend of Nureyev, and photographed him in the past. The collection, or rather, the collections, are about contrasts: the contrasts at Maison Dior, between ready-to-wear and haute couture. It’s the difference between the stage and the backstage; the theatrical life and the real life of Nureyev. Here, there is a meeting between the dancer’s style and the Dior archive,” said Kim Jones.
The collection is, according to the creative director of Dior Men, “a practical and poetic encounter between utility and sumptuousness, between the reality of ready-to-wear and the theatricality of haute couture.” It is a blend of the metaphorical life of a dancer, both public and private: that of Rudolf Nureyev.
The Dior archive served once again as inspiration. Saint Laurent’s tailoring is revisited for the construction of a collection that only concerns the male world, with a special emphasis on volumes, openings, pleats, and continuous necklines that characterize it. In turn, Monsieur Dior’s iconic bar jacket is transformed and adapted.
The spirit of the 60s and 70s is present in the simplicity of buttons, along with slightly wide pants, combined with suits in neutral tones in a mix of noble materials. Here, the unique style of the dancer comes into play, an attitude highlighted by wool jumpsuits and shorts with zippers, ribbed knit second-skin pieces, outerwear inspired by duffles, along with exquisite leathers. In contrast, the haute couture silhouettes embody the extravagance of his stage presence, the flamboyance, insolence, and elegance of Nureyev, rich in reflections, a reflection of his passion for ancient textiles, of which he was a collector. Particularly evident in the kimonos, where virtuous ancestral techniques are fully used, executed manually by master craftsmen in Japan.
The silver uchikake-inspired kimono, with its prestigious hikihaku weaving, refers to the kimono that Nureyev owned and wore. To complete this exceptional symbol, ten people and three months were needed.
It is also in these haute couture silhouettes that the embroideries from the archives take on their full meaning, notably the Debussy dress – a spectacular creation conceived in 1950 by Monsieur Dior and worn by Margot Fonteyn – here reinvented in a masculine version.
The accessories echo the simplicity, discipline, and extravagance of the two worlds, sometimes simultaneously. The shoes evoke ballet slippers and draw inspiration from masculine traditions of evening wear. The rigorous San Crispino construction of leather contrasts with a Mary-Jane slipper in silk and polyester for men. Functional bags, with elegant and fluid curves, highlight the codes of the house, such as bum bags and camera bags in macronnage. The magnificent velvet hats, originally developed by Stephen Jones in 1999 for the Dior women’s line, have been reimagined in the form of a twisted silk jersey turban.
The Dior Winter 2024-2025 collection is revealed in the center of a scenography orchestrated by Baillie Walsh, accompanied by the music of composer Max Richter, who specially revisited Sergei Prokofiev’s work for this Dior runway. The “Dance of the Knights” from the ballet “Romeo and Juliet,” performed by Rudolf and Margot in London in 1965, is reinterpreted for this occasion.
