Editor’s Note: This story was produced as part of CNN Style’s partnership with Paris Fashion Week. See more coverage from the events throughout the year here.
Dior Men and its artistic director Kim Jones have announced their latest collaborator: musician, producer and designer Travis Scott.
Their joint Spring-Summer 2022 collection will be revealed on June 25, at one of Paris Fashion Week Men’s few in-person runway shows. France lifted a majority of Covid-19 related restrictions only recently, on June 9; many fashion labels opted not to gamble on preparing live shows, in the event curtailments were extended.
The partnership marks a first for Jones whose past high-profile collaborations include visual artists such as KAWS, Kenny Scharf, Raymond Pettibon, Hajime Sorayama, and Daniel Arsham. For Autumn-Winter 2020, Jones strayed away from the artist pattern by connecting with Shawn Stussy of the legendary surf brand.
Scott, though, is a notable pivot, and a potentially fruitful one at that. A statement from the label calls the partnership an “unprecedented event [representing] the first full Dior collection ever created with a musician.”
The Grammy-nominated artist has transformed into a multi-hyphenate imaginative force over the past few years, having become no stranger to collaborations himself. Among others, Scott has released products with Nike, Ksubi, BAPE, and even McDonald’s. Many of these have been through Cactus Jack, Scott’s creative collective and foundation.
The pairing is further testament to Jones’s ability to blend high-hype marketing with strong design acumen. He is one of fashion’s rare designers who consistently generates critical acclaim while simultaneously renewing popular, often frenetic, demand. (The resale value of Jones’s Fall/Winter 2020 Dior Jordan 1 sneaker, for example, is north of $8,000, with the original retail price being just a small percentage of this figure.)
According to an Instagram post from Jones, the collaboration took hold when he and Scott first discussed Cactus Jack’s work with the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Last year, Scott announced he was launching “an authentic fashion design program” to high schoolers interested in the field.
Buzz was brewing before Dior’s official announcement. Scott was photographed in Paris wearing a monochrome brown suede Dior Men jacket, with a bespoke font spelling “Dior” across the back. Eagle-eyed fans noted it had never been seen before, with some wondering if it was a one-off, or if it was a hint at an upcoming project.
Dior’s Spring-Summer 2022 men’s collection by Kim Jones and Travis Scott will be unveiled in Paris at 2:30 CEST on June 25. It will also be viewable online at www.dior.com