Paris Fashion Week | Dior pays tribute to Nureyev’s ballet

(Paris) Highlight of Parisian men’s Fashion Week, the Dior Homme show by Kim Jones paid tribute on Friday to ballet icon Rudolf Nureyev, literally elevating its models, fragile and radiant in precious stage costumes.

Two watchwords: “ease and discipline”, like behind the scenes of the Russian ballet.

Under a sky of luminous stars, the brass instruments of composer Sergei Prokoviev launch the metronome-paced ballet of the models, who parade on a circular stage made up of discs which rise and rotate like a giant music box.

In the front row, Pharrell Williams – from competitor Vuitton – leans back in his seat, but applauds at the end.

Here, the stars are not the focus of the performance, but the look is, and the long cheers from the audience show appreciation.

Kim Jones wanted to pay tribute to his uncle Colin Jones, who died in 2021, classical dancer then photojournalist, who produced a rare intimate series on the Russian dancer in exile Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993).

“In the history of Dior, there is also this connection to ballet. There, there was a thread, a source,” the British designer told AFP on the eve of the show, during a presentation in the house’s premises on the Champs-Élysées.

“There is daytime and evening clothing, but also stage clothing, just like the extravagance of homewear », he continued in front of his table of 34 outfits.

Twisted turban

This collection, Kim Jones’ sixth, is made up of 14 ready-to-wear looks and 20 “couture silhouettes”, Dior not being able to use, for legal reasons, the “haute couture” brand for its men’s line.

For the day, his men are “ boyish », Uncovered knees, culotte shorts over high, colorful socks. At the top, second skin t-shirts, sensually zipped.

In addition to Kim Jones’ signature suits, with wrap closure and double breasting, the coats are demure, all available in brown, the color of winter 2025. Note, their belt becomes a separate piece, increased and worn in the wind, like a train, on each side of the waist.

The Bayadère turban, this fabric wrapped around the heads of Nureyev’s dancers, in twisted silk jersey, enhances gray or black costumes, perfecting an evening silhouette, just like the caviar black kimono.

These Dior men then transform into sparkling creatures, in sequin costumes or in bare skin tops adorned with sparkles of all kinds. The accessories range from single earrings to XXL backpacks.

And the men’s ballerina, who never really broke through, caused a sensation on social networks.

For an embroidered toile de Jouy cape, it took no less than 2000 hours of work on the silver thread entrusted to the care of the Vermont workshop, specialist in the Paris square.

“Utility and pomp”

Kim Jones says he imagined “a meeting of utility and splendor that is both functional and poetic.”

LVMH’s star child precedes each collection with a “long dive” into the archives, to draw on a period or a designer.

For this parade, he invites the tailoring by Yves Saint Laurent, with an emphasis on volumes, slits, pleats and especially necklines which run throughout the entire collection.

“This anchoring in the past creates a very strong artistic coherence for the creator,” his entourage explains to AFP.

“I thought about the customer […] pieces that can be sold because they can be kept,” continues the designer in jeans and a t-shirt, claiming the obvious commercial aspect of “timeless”, this timeless soberness that the labels now decline religiously.

In five years, the artistic director has imposed a silhouette and propelled Dior Homme to the forefront of men’s fashion.

Since 2018, this division has experienced the strongest growth in the house on avenue Montaigne, which achieved 79.2 billion euros in turnover in 2022, despite the crisis.