Kim Jones coordinated the Dior Men’s collection from S/S 2021 around the work of the Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo – around, above all, the celebration of style as a vector of black identity and masculinity!
The Dior Men’s S/S 2021 Collection
If the Dior Men’s collection from S/S 2021 started from a meeting in Miami, it is in Monsieur’s couture heritage that it draws much of its romantic panache.
The Genesis of the Dior Homme S/S 2021 Collection
It was at the Rubell Museum in Miami that Kim Jones made the artistic encounter that would inspire this collection. And it was artistic love at first sight – for the vision and paintings of Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo.
It must be said that the work of the painter Amoako Boafo highlights the fashions and the importance of style in defining the identity of the Black Diaspora. And, by centering his pictorial focus on contemporary life in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the painter highlights an invaluable historical legacy. That of Ghana and its textile craft.
To this, Kim Jones, who himself lived in Africa when he was younger, could not remain insensitive. “I love his work, I always wanted to work with an African artist because I grew up in Africa and African art has always been part of my life,” says Kim Jones in the film which unveils the collection.
This is how from this mutual admiration, Kim Jones and Amoako Boafo have linked their art to give shape to the Dior Men’s collection from S/S 2021. A collection which, like the work of Amoako Boafo and that of Kim Jones, has been able to freeze in exhilarating silhouettes the meeting between styles, techniques and different but very complementary heritages.
Dior Oblique, Bar Suit and Ivy Print
Because where Amoako Boafo’s paintings exude a lot of style and highlight the perception of black identity, Kim Jones has clearly seen the connection with the work of Monsieur Dior.
This is how the exceptional tailoring of the house matches with incredible ease the stylistic flights of the characters in Amoako Boafo’s ‘Black Diaspora’ portraits. Stylistic flights that Kim Jones has been able to combine skillfully with the key codes of the house on Avenue Montaigne.
Transposed literally or metaphorically on the Dior Men’s looks from S/S 2021, the silhouettes and masculinity of Amoako Boafo gain to be embodied around Dior grammar.
The collection highlights the iconic Dior Oblique in a shirt that once again plays on transparency. Relevant, Kim Jones’ approach injects a new vision of the masculine into highly stylized compositions. But there is better.
It is on a shirt with an irreproachable cut that we find the ivy print as richly embroidered by Christian Dior in 1950. It was then the ornament of an evening dress cut in silk.
And once inspired by one of Amoako Boafo’s portraits, Monsieur Dior’s ivy print is readily matched with a shirt or embossed leather serving as military boots – all accomplished in a street-couture look of more memorable!
You only have to see the reminiscence of the iconic Bar Jacket in a men’s version to be convinced of the power of such a collection.
A collection presented in the form of a quasi-documentary film, made in two parts. The first, captured by Chris Cunningham, captures the genesis of the London collection at Amoako Boafo’s studio in Ghana. The second, a work by Jackie Nickerson, unveils pieces from the Dior Men S/S 2021 collection. In a celebration of the art of portraiture.
It can be seen here.