Unveiled in a striking space at Paris’s École Militaire, the Dior Men Winter 2025-2026 collection by Kim Jones takes a key inspiration from the constructions and silhouette of Monsieur Dior’s ‘H Line’ of 1954. A color palette primarily nodding to the New Look features an interplay of matte and glossy, structured and soft materials. While tailoring is a focus, the lineup is energized with interpretations of archival volumes, and bows are reimagined with a sharp rigor from jacket backs to eye masks. Examples of celebrated savoir-faire range from the individually sewn beads that create raindrop effects on shoulders to innovative laser cutting.
A notion of metamorphosis and shape-shifting runs throughout the collection. From the slippage of time periods, from one to another, to the changing garments of the archive, from feminine to masculine, to piece of clothing that actually changes – the coat that changes into a skirt.
A play of volumes is present throughout, from fitted to flared, particularly seen in the repetition of robes and ‘opera’ coats, with their full shapes belted and borrowed from the women’s archive. There is a concentration on the noblest fabrics and the noblest finishes. Silks and satins predominate, yet there is a strictness, rigor and monumentality to all. Despite their extravagance, silhouettes are somewhat stripped back. There is a play of light and sheen in finishes and shadows, particularly through controlled drapery and an idea of chiaroscuro that encompasses all.
The main embroidery in the collection is taken from Monsieur Dior’s spring-summer 1948 haute couture Pondichéry look. The embroidery is recreated on the pink robe that closes the show, but its influence proliferates throughout the collection, its motifs borrowed for the jewelry, such as the sterling silver Chatelaine, which is worn on the belt and features all the working accoutrements of the couturier. Other embroideries echo archetypal elements of menswear, such as the pinstripe and herringbone pattern, here overlaid and metamorphosed into more extravagant decoration. Or simply a sprinkling of raindrops, although with its varying sizing of clear glass beading and expert hand placement and sewing, these results are far from simple achievements.
