What an incredible seven years it’s been! As Kim Jones announces he is exiting his role as Dior’s artistic menswear, we look back at 10 of his most stellar catwalk moments at the house, each cementing his place as one of fashion’s greatest showmen.

His Debut Collection, SS19

For days leading up to his monumental Dior debut, Kim Jones had been teasing his collaboration with artist Brian Donnelly on Instagram. He had enlisted friends like Kim Kardashian, A$AP Rocky and Skepta to pose with Donnelly’s knitted Kaws dolls, dressed in tiny black Dior Homme suits. A true modern designer, Jones instinctively understood culture before it reached the masses, surrounding himself with creatives and collaborators like jeweller Yoon Ambush and milliner Stephen Jones.

For his Dior Men’s debut, he fused haute couture with sportswear – softly structured suits, cowl-neck shirts and floral prints that nodded to Dior’s garden-inspired couture. Having spent hours in the Dior archive, Jones crafted a collection rich in heritage yet undeniably modern. The iconic saddle bag, once a ’90s It piece, returned for men as a grey leather bum bag. The entire show had been a tour de force, proving Jones’ exceptional talent and marking the start of an exciting new era for Dior Men.

Pre-Fall 2019

Kim Jones redefined menswear at Dior Men’s Pre-Fall 2019 show in Tokyo, where he showcased a fresh, boxy cut that moved away from the decade-long super-skinny silhouette of “Dior Homme.” The show featured a striking 12-metre silver robot sculpture by Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, symbolising Jones’s blend of fashion and futuristic art. Drawing on Christian Dior’s love for art and Japan, Jones honoured the couturier’s legacy with pieces inspired by Dior’s Japanese clientele and personal style, like buttery black leather jackets and reimagined cannage designs. The collection ranged from monogram silk shirts with cherry blossom accents to dapper houndstooth suits and asymmetric blazers. The diverse front row – featuring David Beckham, Ezra Miller, Kate Moss and A$AP Rocky – highlighted the universal appeal of Jones’s vision, proving his ability to bridge past, present, and future in menswear.

Stussy Collab Fall 2020

Kim Jones is the king of collabs. During his time at Louis Vuitton, he was the author of the beloved LV x Supreme collab and after his move to Dior, kept up the good work. For Fall 2020, he debuted work with streetwear pioneer Shawn Stussy who brought in his own signatures into the convo. Not only through graffiti fonts and prints reminiscent of his surf merch brand founded during the 1980s, Stussy’s influence was seen on the more subtle beachy elements which hark back to those early days. Bucket hats with floral corsages and brooches and jewellery created by Ambush’s Yoon Ahn, all breathe with the irreverent spirit of Stussy’s heyday of counter-culturing about.

Fall 2022

As heroic homecomings go, Kim Jones’ Fall 2022 was pretty spectacular. Newly minted at The Fashion Awards as Designer of the Year, Dior’s Kim Jones crowned his success with his first London show since 2003, proving why he deserves that title. The vast Olympia exhibition space was commandeered for his stadium-sized show, which Jones preluded with an exhibition of his large, private collection of Jack Kerouac first editions, as well as letters, correspondence and memorabilia of the writer and other members of the Beat Generation and those they inspired (including Allen Ginsberg’s credit card and a first pressing of the Velvet Underground and Nico album with its Warhol-designed banana cover art). It represented years of obsessive and detailed collecting, and a desire to get close to his heroes and understand them on an intimate level.

AW22

As the house of Dior celebrated its 75th anniversary, Jones turned to the man who started it all, Monsieur Dior. “I wanted to look at the archive, at the purity of the beginnings of the house,” wrote Jones in his show notes, “at its original impulse.” With a wealth of material on hand, Jones focused on the house’s initial collections – rerooting the couturier’s deeply feminine sensibilities to meet the demands of a man’s wardrobe today. Across an artificial rendition of the Pont Alexandre III bridge – as big and just a stone’s throw away from the actual thing – models came suited in Jones’ undeniably British tailoring, unified with Christian Dior signatures.

SS23

Kim Jones brought the English countryside to Paris with his SS23 Dior menswear show, creating a mini oasis inspired by Granville, Dior’s birthplace, and Charleston in Sussex. The set featured two houses, nodding to artist Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group’s creative enclave. Jones, who honoured Bloomsbury in his Fendi debut, explored private artistic communities that spark creativity and style.

In a romantic palette of rose pinks, dusty blues, and cream, Grant’s artworks were reimagined as couture-level knits, paired with wide-cut trousers, boyish shorts, and Stephen Jones’ summer hats. Kim Jones’ signature tailoring met elevated activewear – sharp-shouldered suits with woolly socks and climbing shoes, or ankle-length wellies with plaid anoraks.

That’s the beauty of Jones’ Dior: his designs are exquisite yet grounded in everyday elegance.

Pre-Fall 2023

All roads led to Egypt. In the year leading up to this show, Kim Jones had marked 75 years of Dior’s New Look with collections drawing parallels between his designs and those of Monsieur Dior. From the house’s origins to Dior’s love of gardening, Jones had woven classic signatures – like the Bar Jacket – into his romantic tailoring and sport-inflected menswear. With destination shows back post-pandemic, Jones had outdone himself – his pre-fall 2023 collection unfolded before the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the last Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Under lasers, models trudged a winding catwalk like Dune nomads, clad in hues echoing the desert’s shift from day to night. Instead of hieroglyphics and Cleopatra, Jones had drawn on Ancient Egypt’s astronomy and Dior’s astrological obsession, with 3D-printed chest pieces, kilt-trouser hybrids and NASA-sourced galaxy prints completing the look.

SS24 5th Anniversary Show

Set inside a gigantic, sci-fi silver box planted in the centre of the Place de Fontenoy, a troupe of models, clad in Day-Glo hues, rose from the floor in unison. Scored by a warped rendition of Primal Scream’s Higher Than the Sun, Kim Jones’ SS24 Dior collection, marking five years since his debut for the house, had a back-to-the-future quality. A master of spectacle, Jones once again proved he is fashion’s ultimate showman.

Playing out like a Dior-ified greatest hits, the designer cherry-picked his favourite elements that shaped the couture house – from Yves Saint Laurent’s silhouettes to Gianfranco Ferré’s embroideries and Monsieur Dior’s beloved gemstones – funnelling each through his modern tailoring.

The result was a sublime clash of sartorial codes, blended with neon hues. Fluorescent polos met bedazzled cardis, while men’s classics dripped in jewels. Stephen Jones’ club-kid beanies topped off one of Jones’ strongest collections yet.

AW24

On every seat at Dior’s AW24 men’s show sat a photography book of Rudolf Nureyev, shot by Colin Jones – Kim Jones’s late uncle. This deeply personal collection merged the designer’s own lineage with Dior’s legacy; after all, Nureyev’s Romeo and Juliet partner in 1965 was Margot Fonteyn, a client of Monsieur Dior.

Marking his first-ever couture designs for Dior, Jones explored contrast – onstage versus backstage, theatrics versus reality – blending Nureyev’s style with the Dior archive. Models walked to Dance of the Knights in dancer-inspired looks: short suits, sleek tailoring, opulent coats, and ballet flats with silk socks.

For the finale, Jones’ debut couture looks took centre stage – Hikihaku-woven kimonos, bejewelled denim jackets and croc-effect bombers. A true showman, he delivered a performance-worthy collection, proving once again that outdoing himself is simply what he does.

AW25

During his tenure at Dior, Kim Jones maintained a continuous dialogue with Christian Dior, adapting the couturier’s hallmarks to infuse romance and grandeur into modern menswear. This season, he looked to the Ligne H AW54 collection, drawn to its “graphic and angular” elements, which he saw as transferable to menswear.

Jones fused ornate 18th-century tailoring with 19th-century utilitarian codes, all softened by Dior’s elegant touch. Models descended a grand white staircase – some in semi-opaque blindfolds – wearing cocooning opera coats tied at the shoulders, handsome Bar jackets, and crystal-frosted blousons mimicking raindrops.

There was much to admire: floor-sweeping skirts that were actually reworked coats, and a closing powder-pink kimono hand-beaded with silver embellishment. Balancing masculine and feminine tropes, Jones tethered past elegance to the present – a masterful skill that was fittingly recognised as he received the French Legion of Honour, the country’s highest civilian award.

Photography courtesy of Dior.

@mrkimjones