Dior’s British designer Kim Jones awarded knighthood in Paris

Friday afternoon in Paris was a big one for the British designer Kim Jones. The artistic director not only presented his latest menswear collection for Dior, he also collected the prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, a rarity for someone from outside France. In a fashion moment par excellence, the award was presented to him by Anna Wintour, becoming a knight in the process.

Jones has been at Dior for six years, designing the brand’s menswear collections. During that time, he has explored the brand’s rich archive and also personal interests, including TS Eliot’s The Waste Land and Vanessa Bell’s house Charleston in east Sussex. This show was no different. It took Christian Dior’s mid-50s Ligne H collection as its jump-off, but made Casanova – the 18th-century Italian author known for his multiple relationships with women – its muse.

If Casanova is often seen as a “ladies’ man”, Jones played with that phrase in terms of gender fluidity. The show notes explained that it translated as “a mix of the masculine and the feminine … together with the excesses of the 18th century, found in the idea of the extravagant dresser”. Tropes that might traditionally be seen more a part of the womenswear lexicon – sparkles, pink, bows, boat necks and long skirts – were here worn by men. It was an elegant collection with a smattering of subversion.

Dior was also in the spotlight beyond Paris this week – in a context where any concept of gender fluidity would be given short shrift. Ivanka Trump wore an outfit from the women’s collection (designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri) for the inauguration of her father, Donald Trump; and the new first lady, Melania, wore Dior for a reception at the weekend. LVMH, Dior’s parent company, also gave its allegiance to tTrump: the CEO Bernard Arnault was present at his inauguration, along with two of Arnault’s children, Delphine (the CEO of Dior) and Alexandre, who works with Tiffany Trump.dcdcd