“I had been thinking about the relationship between the ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn and Monsieur Dior. The masculine interpretation of this also involved thinking about her most famous dance partner: Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev is entwined with my personal history because of my uncle, the photographer Colin Jones. Colin had been a ballet dancer, had a friendship with, and photographed the star. The collection, or rather collections, are about contrast: the contrasts in the house of Dior in terms of ready-to-wear and haute couture. it’s the difference between onstage and backstage; the life of Nureyev theatrically and in reality. here it is a meeting of the dancer’s style with that of the Dior archive.” – Kim Jones

In an enormous specially built theatre on the grounds of École Militaire, Dior presented their Fall/Winter 2024/25 collection. Pharrell Williams, Kate Moss, Luther Ford, Princess Eugenie, and Rita Ora along with ambassadors of the house including Haerin from NewJeans, Jung Hae-in, Tomorrow X Together, Apo Natawin, and Mile Phakphum among others made up the dress ring in the dimmed theatre before center stage lit up to a to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Dance of Knights” revisited by composer Max Richter. The role of Romeo was famously danced by Nureyev.

Jones found his muse for the season in the elegance and flamboyancy of Nureyev on and off the stage translated into both ready-to-wear and couture pieces. The kimonos, based on Nureyev’s own collection of vintage textiles, took three months for artisans to create in Japan. Ballet neutrals were balanced with theatrical crystal embellishments and mesh tops. Zipped wool jumpsuits captured Nureyev’s off-stage 70s style as found in the photography of Colin Jones while turbans and single pearl adorned earlobes could just as easily be worn going to the ballet, one of the few occasions where one can really dress up.

Drawing on the Dior archive for inspiration saw a focus on volumes, vents, pleats, and necklines that run throughout. A new masculine iteration of Monsieur Dior’s bar suit is combined with Jones’ own oblique, with its characteristical extended double-breasted wrap united with a fluid bar waist curve. Before lights dimmed reminiscent of a curtain call, the inner circle elevated for a spectacular finale.

Check out the collection below: