Ever since his game-changing collaboration with Supreme as head men’s wear designer at Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones has been deft at setting creative partnerships that generate media buzz and fuel his creative inspiration season after season.
Since taking over as men’s artistic director at Dior in 2018, he’s worked with artists including Kaws, Daniel Arsham and Kenny Scharf on collections that have turbocharged the business. But his latest collaboration was yet another era-defining moment, as Travis Scott became the first musician to create a full collection with Dior.
The collaboration between Jones and Scott — and the influence it generated — earned the two men the WWD Honor for Men’s Wear Designers of the Year. In an online interview with Alex Badia, style director of WWD, at the summit, they revealed the challenges of working together in the midst of a global pandemic, and how mutual trust was key to the process.
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“Man, it was actually crazy. I was in Cabo, I was working on my album,” said Scott, referring to “Utopia,” the eagerly awaited follow-up to his hit album “Astroworld.” When he got the call from Jones, he thought it was just a friendly check-in.
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“And then when he was explaining to me a little bit more, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, OK, we’re gonna make, like, you know, a couple of things.’ And then we linked up, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is crazy.’ You know, all these different ideas start fleshing out, so it was amazing to see where it started and how it grew to be where it went,” he added.
For Jones, collaborations were a way to stay in touch with friends during months of pandemic-imposed solitude at home in London.
“We did this collection in a very challenging time of lockdown, and I think we did such a good job on it,” said the designer, noting that distance is not a bad thing, provided the creative channels stay open. “It’s giving people freedom to do what they want, and that is really what it’s about. And that’s why you work with people — you can only do a collaboration with someone you trust.”
A case in point: the soundtrack to the show, which included a new track called “Lost Forever,” cowritten by Scott with James Blake and Westside Gunn. “Travis went off and did the music at the very last minute, and that, for me, is quite a weird thing, but the music was perfect,” said Jones, who is known for his meticulous advance planning.
“It was a good challenge of being able to try to create at a higher level, and not all the time be next to each other,” Scott concurred, noting that he was in the U.S., Jones and his team in London, and the prototypes in Paris.
“We’re making it work and everyone’s shifting around. It just made me appreciate the idea of being able to bounce ideas back and forth with someone that you can trust to understand what you’re trying to do. I think that was, like, literally one of the main key components that, you know, we kind of like understood each other, so it was a very good back and forth,” he said.
The two first connected at that Supreme show at Vuitton in 2017. “We just hung out from there,” Scott said. “It’s like a friendship — whether it’s music, clothes or just life in itself. And then from there, we just put some ideas together and kept it going.”
The Dior collection is the latest in Scott’s winning streak of partnerships with companies as diverse as Nike, Dover Street Market, Playstation, Epic Games and Byredo, prompting Forbes magazine to dub him “corporate America’s brand whisperer.” His collaboration with McDonald’s last year resulted in meat shortages and helped to drive up the fast-food giant’s shares.
A Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, producer, businessman and designer, the rapper has also been lauded for his innovative music marketing strategies, such as bundling concert tickets, merchandise and a new album, and staging a virtual concert within Epic’s wildly successful Fortnite game.
“He looks at a genre in a different way, the way that it’s not just music: it’s fashion, it’s flipping around things, and so for me, he’s always inspiring,” Jones said. “I like sharing the spotlight with someone, especially like Travis who totally deserves it. It’s nice to see Travis excel at everything he does. I think it’s amazing.”
Last year, Scott became the unofficial ambassador of the Air Dior capsule line and its hugely popular Air Jordan 1 OG Dior sneakers. He has something of a Midas touch when it comes to footwear: In 2020, sneakers Scott codesigned sold on average for 370 percent more than their launch price on online resale platform StockX.
Dior hopes to have another hit on its hands with the skate-inspired B713 sneakers it showed with the spring men’s collection, which was named after Scott’s creative collective Cactus Jack. But what both men agreed on very quickly was not a streetwear vibe, but the tailored look that is at the core of the line: a narrow Oblique jacket paired with flared pants.
“I was just looking with someone in my studio at the way Travis dresses, because we’d made some things for him, for the Met [Gala in 2019]. And I just thought it would be nice to see it as a whole collection. That’s really how we got the conversation started,” explained Jones, adding there were a few surprises along the way.
“I think one of the favorite things was the Saddle bag that he created, with the stirrup handle that I would never have thought up,” he said.
Scott also took liberties with the Dior Oblique logo, twisting it to spell out the word “Jack.” It turns out Bernard Arnault, head of Dior’s parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, personally OK’d the irreverent take on one of his most valuable pieces of intellectual property. “I was surprised that got through the net, but everyone loved it,” Jones remarked.
Meanwhile, watching the way a high-end fashion house operates has fed into Scott’s music-making routine.
“It’s interesting to see the workflow and the process of it. Every piece is very important and the level of detail is very serious, you know what I’m saying? And the same way for music, which is cool. Being able to see both avenues is kind of interesting, and definitely inspired me even just for my album now, to try new things, a different style of workflow, a different style of creating music — just being in a whole other mind-set,” he noted.
The line also contained a charitable component. As part of the collaboration, Dior will auction off four white shirts hand-painted by artist George Condo to benefit the fashion program created in partnership between Scott’s Cactus Jack Foundation and The New School’s Parsons School of Design.
“We’ve all been blessed enough to get where we’re at,” Scott said. “Anything we’re trying to do, I think it’s not about money and s–t. I think it’s just more also about the inspiration and trying to get somebody inspired to wake up, to be able to put out the same good product.”
Jones also has an eye on posterity. The show’s set, a psychedelic extravaganza featuring oversize blooms inspired by founder Christian Dior’s garden, and cacti symbolizing Scott’s home state of Texas, was informed by a show that former Dior artistic director John Galliano put on in 2005 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Dior’s birth.
“I like the idea for people to look at it in 50 years when it’s in an exhibition about Dior, or about fashion, or about music. That’s the thing that interests me,” Jones said.
Both men agreed that the show represented a creative high they would need a little time to digest. Scott had the realization when he took his bow with Jones at the end of the show, with the elation of an athlete who’s just broken a world record.
“You go from moments of being outside, like trying to get a peek inside to see what’s going down in the shows, and now you’re inside, and then being able to be part of it,” he recalled. “Man, it was just so surreal. It all hit me right there. It was dope that, man, we actually got to this point.”
Now he’s focusing on his “Astroworld” festival, due to take place in Houston on Friday and Saturday. “That’s my number-one ambition right now, you know? I’m so happy [about] what we did, and now I’m so happy to just get to the next level, and music and shows and performances,” he said.
Likewise, Jones plans to take a little break before lining up another major collaboration. “I think it was pretty epic, so I don’t want to emulate it. I’ve got other things to do,” he said, hinting at yet another twist with his next collection.
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