Dior The Spring 2024 Men’s Collection

From high-flown insignia to low-down workwear; pomp and practicality appear as one. In the Spring collection, a notion of high style meets the every day meets the every-day where relaxed lines intersect with the rigorous traditions of the atelier, transposing and converting menswear archetypes and classics for today. All are brought together by Kim Jones, the Artistic Director of Dior men’s collections, with a healthy dose of London cool gleaned from teenage years absorbing the pages of magazines, home to Ray Petri’s Buffalo style.

Tailoring and the masculine suit are approached more in the spirit of the complementary ensemble, with a good balance of contrasting reality for a new mixed meaning for today. Construction is relaxed, a combination of formal and informal, where ease for the wearer is all. At the same time, fabrications and techniques display all the intricacies and traditional savoir-faire of the atelier. Archetypes are transposed through materials and their meanings; trompe l’oeil effects are applied as painterly prints to denim, while shearling takes on the shape of the traditional denim jacket. Meanwhile, Dior codes are reconfigured, finding new form in archetypal items; the CD Diamond morphs into argyle knits while the cannage becomes puffer quilting. Simultaneously, Kim Jones’ reinterpretations of Dior symbols are repeated: demi-kilts appear once more, transposed in shirting fabric; gilets are also a distinct part of the new tailoring proposition; construction becomes decoration with new takes on the CD buckle.

In all, looks are in flux, both done and undone, at once radical and classical. Yet it is an easeful proposition where there is no right way or wrong way of dressing. It’s above all about the wearer doing what they want with their own sense of style

“There is an exploration of the possibilities of tailoring. Not only have we moved away from the rigidity of the hard, constructed shoulder to something softer and more malleable, but we have also embraced the potential of what tailoring can be beyond questions of construction. We’re really asking what constitutes a suit now. There is the importance of self-styling; it’s about not being dictated to but the freedom of wearing what you want how you want.” Kim Jones