Dior’s Playbook for an Elegant Summer

Dior’s Spring/Summer 2025 menswear collection captures the blissful insouciance of a summer well spent. On Friday, in the grounds of Paris’ Val-de-Grâce, models bounced down the runway in airy, spring silhouettes, soundtracked by a rapturous live recording of Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’.
This show marks Kim Jones’ 60th collection for Dior within six years, during which time the English designer has forged a reputation for delivering collections that satisfy house loyalists while securing new clientele at the same time. This season, Jones delved into the archives, casting his eye to the refined aesthetics of the 1950s and 1960s. The collection subtly references Yves Saint Laurent's brief tenure at Dior from 1958 to 1960, which saw the introduction of fluid, laid-back silhouettes to the house code. Across the show’s 47 looks, we found evidence of Saint Laurent’s influence in rounded volumes and sculptural lines. Here, Jones has, quite literally, taken a page out of Saint Laurent’s sketchbook, delivering a collection that brings Dior’s classical past into its whimsical, exuberant present.
Lightweight shirts, cocoon coats and silky suits zipped up and down the runway, shimmering in shades of oatmeal, ecru and azure. For accessories, models wore crocheted cloche hats, lightweight eyewear, voluminous totes and saddlebags cast in every size. Illustrations of birds, animals and trees—courtesy of South African artist Hylton Nel—adorned collars, buttons, brooches and sweaters, while giant reproductions of Nel’s ceramic cats lined the runway like monumental gods. Here, we find Jones at his most playful. With his signature joie de vivre, Jones shows us, yet again, the dynamism of tradition.
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