Eyes Wide Shut: Kim Jones Bets on men’s Sensuality for Dior

It was the highlight of Parisian Men’s Fashion Week: Kim Jones, who is rumoured to be parting ways with the LVMH group to return to London, placed a bet on men’s sensuality for his Dior autumn-winter 2025/2026 show that took place on a windy Friday afternoon, just hours before the designer received his Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit.

In a complicated world full of improbable circumstances, how should a man dress? Kim Jones’ answer is to take the most gorgeous coat out of the closet and enjoy the moment. For this show, probably his most delicate yet striking at the same time, he decided to give up on his favourite fashion trick - collaborations (the mastermind behind the Louis Vuitton x Supreme combo, made cultural and fashion meets-up his signature for Dior) - and focus on the essentials. And let his clothes speak.

The set design was simple, accordingly. There was no extra decoration, just a brushed silver floor, and a magnificent perfectly sterile white staircase built in a giant light box. His models walked down its steps before embracing the giant catwalk, only to march the steps once again, disappearing under the show space and appearing once again at the finale. A metaphor for life and its unpredictable twists, when you go from Heaven to Hell and back again. All to the piercing soundtrack made up of one song Time Lapse that the Michael Newman Band composed for the McQueen documentary released in 2018, about Kim’s mentor and one of the greatest British designers of all time (if you want to add a bit of drama to your daily routine, this is the right choice for your playlist).

The collection, inspired by Ligne H presented by Christian Dior in 1954 and modern Casanovas, the sensual yet elegant “Ladies’ men”, juggling their masculine and feminine identities, was almost completely executed in Kim’s favourite colour palette: black, white, ecru, and dusty pink, which became his trademark at Dior. He has been using it since his very first spring-summer 2019 collection presented at the Garde Républicaine 7 years ago to the drawback of a giant rose statue, created by artist friend Kaws and embodying the founder of the House, Christian Dior. As Jones explained in his show notes: “We believed it’s time to focus on Monsieur Dior again. We wanted to go back to the roots and concentrate on the quintessence of the house. There is a sense of fashion history, particularly the history of menswear, running through this collection. The shift from something quite ornate and extravagant in the eighteenth century to something more linear and utilitarian in the nineteenth, with the beginnings of modern menswear. Yet, while a lot refers to the history of fashion, this is not historical fashion. Ultimately, in this collection, we wanted to say something about now”.

The collection was filled with opera coats (some with couture crystal embroideries, others with beautiful bows on the back, taken directly from Monsieur Dior’s womenswear wardrobes) and statement jackets realised from the noblest materials like silks and satins, omnipresent on the catwalk. Some of the models had their eyes veiled by ribbons - as if they wanted to hide their eyes from the stranger’s gaze and escape from the reality in front of them. There were also skirts (transformable into coats!), cardigans revealing collar bones, the perfect tailoring with one-button blazers and some of the most exquisite shearling jackets of the season, cut short for an extra dose of elegance.

Will Kim leave Dior? It’s still TBC. There is also no news about Jonathan Anderson, who is rumoured to take over both womenswear and menswear at Dior and who therefore has cancelled all of his shows for Loewe and his namesake JW Anderson brand. Jones might as well show another collection during the summer fashion week, as some insiders say. But judging by how powerful this show felt (the designer received a standing ovation), and how he walked all the way down the runway to kiss goodbye both his boss Delfine Arnault and LVMH patron’s wife Hélène Mercier (on the sidenote, her husband Bernard Arnault was absent at the show, leaving his front row seat empty) on the cheeks during his final bow, it felt like a very gorgeous way to say thank you for all these brilliant years. Kim, the king of menswear crowned by a Légion d’Honneur later on the very same day, you will be missed.  

Courtesy: Dior

Text: Lidia Ageeva