It is in London, her hometown, that Kim Jones, artistic director of the men’s collections of the house of Dior since 2018, has chosen to present her fall 2022 line, on the evening of Thursday, December 9. A homecoming for the 42-year-old designer, who studied at the prestigious Central Saint Martins.
“ London obviously has a special place for me, I think of my friends who are no longer there today, like Louise Wilson; who was my teacher and my mentor, or even Lee McQueen. I wanted to celebrate that, in a way. We also invited students from Saint Martins to come and watch the parade ”, told us the creator the day before the event.
The house has invited some 1,200 guests – all of whom have previously been tested for Covid-19 – to the Olympia Grand, an exhibition hall in the east of the city. Many personalities and friends of the house had made the trip, including the model Naomi Campbell, the actor Benoît Magimel, the recently Olympic medalist diver Tom Daley or even the singer Grace Jones, who offered the assembly a performance at the end of the parade.
If the festivities took place in London, it was nevertheless a completely different destination that inspired the collection. A great lover of literature and collector of rare books, Kim Jones has indeed turned to the world of books. On the road by American author Jack Kerouac, to imagine his new score. Published in 1957, this cult book of the American Beat generation retraces the journeys undertaken by Sal Paradise, a sort of double by Jack Kerouac, on American roads in the 1950s. Between an initiatory quest, refusal of conventions and a spirit of freedom, this book has since marked many generations.
Opening for the occasion a window on his personal universe, the designer organized before the parade an ephemeral exhibition – which was only visible during the show – bringing together a small part of his private collection of rare books, manuscripts, letters and others. pieces relating to the American counterculture of this period.
Directed by Sammy Jay, in charge of the modern literature department of the London rare bookstore Peter Harrington, this exhibition gave to see some nuggets. We have thus discovered many original editions of On the road, some autographed by Jack Kerouac himself for his close friends, but also a copy of the collection of poems First blues (1975) by Allen Ginsberg – another essential author of this movement -, dedicated to Bob Dylan, a handwritten letter from Jack Kerouac addressed to his mother, Gabrielle, a translation of the book A season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud dated 1960 and offered by Kate Moss to Kim Jones (the French poet who was the object of a real cult following by the authors of the Beat generation), or even a typescript document containing the words of a song from the Velvet Underground and amended by hand by Lou Reed.
Cropped velvet pants
“Kim Jones has this incredible habit of transforming her passions, in this case that of old books, into creative projects. He is interested in the works of the Beat generation, and has been collecting them for almost fifteen years, and I think that the confinements have in a way allowed him to rediscover his library and to develop this project in particular ”, explains Sammy Jay, who has been tracking new treasures around the world for Kim Jones for a few years.
Between April 2 and 22, 1951, Jack Kerouac wrote his story in one go on a 36-meter-long roll of paper made by himself. A scroll reproduced in immense decoration on the catwalk of the parade, like a canvas to unroll. “ The idea of the collection is that of a suitcase that we empty as we travel on the road. Each silhouette is a reference to an author or a poet, whether it is Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg… These different personalities are thus reinterpreted through the prism of today. But in the end, the men’s wardrobe has not changed that much since the 1950s ”, explains the creator.
A blazer jacket accompanies a shirt whose print recalls the cover of one of the first editions of Vision of Cody, by Jack Kerouac, a white sweater takes up the colorful graphics of the cover of an edition of the book Big Sur, still signed Jack Kerouac. Large wool sweaters are paired with light denim jeans with pleats along the leg, while soft knit ensembles give the look a nomadic vibe.
Perfectly cut, large-checked jackets are paired with cropped canvas or velor pants. On the feet, the models wear sturdy walking shoes or classic shoes. Backpacks carried over the shoulder or small leather satchels held at the end of the hand complete this silhouette which, if it draws its inspiration from the bohemian allure of the 1950s, is perfectly in tune with the times. .
Crossed at the end of the parade, Jim Sampas, literary executor of Jack Kerouac’s heritage, was delighted with this collaboration: “I hope this will introduce his books to a whole new generation. “ Millennials closely follow each of Kim Jones’ parades and proposals.
