At Dior Men, Kim Jones proved how much of a fashion jack of all trades he is. During his fall-winter 2024-2025 fashion show which was held early in the afternoon in the courtyard of the École Militaire, the British designer at the head of Dior Men unveiled a wardrobe with multiple faces, inspired in particular by ballet and dance in general. Kim Jones, a man with a voracious and eclectic culture, paid tribute to his uncle Colin Jones, a ballet dancer in the 1950s.
To music from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, Romeo and Juliet (1935), the Dior Men fashion show thus unveiled a contained collection, high couture – the models were literally raised above the public during the final tableau – and worked from the signature uniform of the dancer of ballet. From the leotard to the dancing shoe, Kim Jones diverts the wardrobe of the little opera rats, while focusing on the pieces which have, until now, been the heydays of Dior’s men’s wardrobe.
The ballerina, a new fashion essential?
The bags, for example, are visible throughout the collection: the small functional sizes in blue crocodile-effect leather, or even the textured white backpacks set with hand-drawn patterns. But, and this is more surprising from Kim Jones for Dior Men, the real UFOs of the show are the ballerinas present almost everywhere throughout the collection, worn most often with shorts and large pulled-up socks.
Available in almost all sizes, the Dior men’s ballerina by Kim Jones is available in leather, suede, and in beige or black. The more than obvious inspiration? The dance shoe. After the ballerinas signed The Row, Celine or Alaïa, the emblematic shoe of Y2K fashion, which was for a long time one of the neglected ones of fashion, is undoubtedly back in 2024. Regardless of the gender this time, style-savvy men will now walk flat like their female counterparts. Not sure, however, that the street is ready to adopt the masculine ballerina.
