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The vacancy left by Lafayette in Fendi finally ushered in a new owner. On September 9th, Kim Jones was officially appointed as artistic director of Fendi women's wear, and will continue to be artistic director of Dior men's wear. As a rare designer who works in two top fashion companies at the same time, what's so great about Kim Jones? After LV and Dior handed in a perfect score that far exceeded expectations, can he complete LVMH's mission again and achieve a brand-new Fendi?

Kim Jones always wears that iconic overalls: a black cashmere sweater with black pants, and sometimes a jacket with a pair of Nike sneakers.

It is hard to imagine that under such an ordinary appearance, he once had an unusual title: Louis Vuitton's creative director for men's wear, Dior's artistic director for men's wear, and now he is Fendi's artistic director for women's wear.

"It's beautiful. Look," he pulled up his pullover. "It finished its task. Because what I need to do is to think about how to design clothes instead of worrying about my own clothes. I wear familiar work clothes so that I can concentrate on the work at hand. "

What is he paying attention to? Perhaps it is the fusion of street trends and high fashion, perhaps the cooperation between Supreme and LV to become the benchmark of the industry, perhaps the revival of cutting technology to pass on suit fashion to the new generation, perhaps the diversified art on the runway, perhaps these are just one thousandth of his concentration.

Recently, Fendi officially announced that British fashion designer Kim Jones will be the brand art director, responsible for women's haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collection. This is also the first time that Kim Jones has set foot in the field of women's design. At the same time, he will continue to be the artistic director of Dior men's wear in Paris. It is rare for a designer to be the artistic director of two top fashion companies at the same time. The last one is Karl karl lagerfeld, the "Galeries Lafayette".

As a legend in the fashion world and the last artistic director of women's wear in Fendi, "Galeries Lafayette" designed the famous double-F logo for Fendi in 54 years, and created the concept of "Fun Fur", which made fur on the high fashion show and made Fendi a top luxury brand in the world.

After the death of "Lafayette" last year, this seat of Fendi has been vacant. Although it is often said that Fendi may have all the creative ownership of the brand, now Fendi has welcomed Kim Jones.

Why Kim Jones?

Fendi: the best candidate for "rejuvenation strategy"

According to the data of LVMH Group, compared with other big brands, Fendi's ability to resist risks during the epidemic period is not ideal.

In recent years, Fendi has achieved a strong growth in sales with exquisite leather accessories, fur design and a rapidly growing fan base in Asia, but it has also been questioned as "eating the old money". In addition to the classic Monogram and baguette bag, there have been no new explosions for a long time. In addition, fur is difficult to attract young markets, and the voice of "anti-fur" is also rising. This traditional luxury brand, which made its fortune as a fur dealer, saw the necessity of change when it went downhill.

The urgent need for brand rejuvenation made Fendi not leave women's clothes to Silvia Venturini Fendi, the third generation of the family, but Kim Jones, who is famous for combining old luxury brands with street fashion brands, became the best candidate.

Kim Jones has his own profound views on street trends and art, and the cross-border joint names such as LV x Supreme and Dior x KAWS have become an instant hit, proving his strength again and again: when the younger generation pursues street trends and the old luxury brands face the loss of the aging consumer market, he helps LV and Dior successfully win the young market in one fell swoop.

Therefore, this time, LVMH Group appointed Kim Jones as Fendi women's wear, perhaps to copy the successful experience of LV and Dior, and let him inject new blood into Fendi. This is an important step of Fendi's "rejuvenation strategy" and is also regarded as the key to saving the situation.

For Kim Jones, this is an honor, but also an recognition: "As a designer, it is a real honor to work in these two famous brands. I am honored to join Fendi and continue to work in Dior Men's Wear. "

There is no doubt that he is worthy of this honor. Bernard arnault, CEO of LVMH, called Jones a "great genius" and added that he had proved his ability to adapt to LVMH "with excellent modernization ability and bold practice".

Why can Kim Jones get such a high evaluation?

Kim Jones was born in London and graduated from Central Saint Martin's College, a famous British art and design school. He is one of the most dazzling stars in the luxury men's wear industry and has worked for LVMH for a long time. She worked as a menswear designer in LV for 7 years before joining Dior menswear on 20/0/8.

Even after pushing forward for more than ten years, Kim Jones still achieved brilliant achievements before LV and Dior.

At the CSM Graduation Design Exhibition in 2002, john galliano, the former chief designer of Dior, directly bought nearly half of his works. Inspired by this, he founded his own brand of the same name in 2003 and held his first show at London Fashion Week, which was quite individual.

After graduation, Kim Jones worked in fast fashion brands such as Uniqlo, luxury brands such as alexander mcqueen, Pastelle and Hugo Boss, and also worked in Dazed &；; Fashion magazines such as Confusion have served as artistic directors, and these diverse work experiences have also accumulated a lot of experience for him.

In 2008, he got a dream job as the creative director of alfred dunhill, a British luxury brand, and won the Men's Designer of the Year Award from the British Fashion Council twice in 2006 and 2009.

Since graduation, he has been wandering in the fashion world. He has always had a well-thought-out plan and won many awards. Kim Jones really achieved his thirties. At the age of 38, he entered LV, one of the top luxury brands in the world, and became the creative director of men's wear. Such a life track is undoubtedly enviable, but it is inseparable from his years of work experience and inspiration accumulation in different brands.

LV: A Cross-genre Legend of Street Trends and Luxury

"Diana Vreeland once said that how young a person is depends on his brain state. Karl (Galeries Lafayette) is a perfect example. Whether you can become an excellent designer and understand the needs of the public depends on your attitude, not your age. "

Kim Jones said so, and he proved it with his actions.

After entering LV, he brought his long-term love for luxury street clothes and encyclopedic fashion knowledge: sports technology fabrics, oversized sneakers and printed T-shirts, high-definition sportswear, as well as crocodile leather backpacks and cashmere baseball shirts, which successfully saved this brand that was too satisfied with selling luggage belts and wallets with Monogram only to male customers.

He has been committed to implanting multiculturalism into his brand and combining his favorite street style with high-definition fashion, which is a bold move. In 20 17, Supreme and LV Century, which set off a huge wave in the fashion circle, were jointly promoted by him, setting a benchmark for cross-genre brand cooperation, and then Dior signed a contract with KAWS and Stussi. The combination of street fashion and high-end luxury goods makes rich hipsters have the same goal. Once it was released, it was snapped up, and even sold 654.38+0.7 million sweaters. Until today, the prices of various items in this series are still high.

Kim Jones, who loves to travel, seems to hit it off with this brand that started with luggage. It not only aroused enthusiastic response in his first show, but also joined hands with supermodels Naomi and Kate to attend the launch of Louis Vuitton's 20 18 autumn and winter men's collection, which was his last show before leaving office seven years later. This series also triggered a buying craze. It can be said that the seven-year management of LV has a beginning and an end.

In Dior, he blended suits and street clothes for modern audiences, redesigned tailor-made fashion shows, and brought men's wear to a glorious place where classic tailoring, youth and modernity were perfectly integrated, causing a sensation outside the men's wear market. He can always give full play to the design inspiration by surprise, learn from the brand history and adapt to the changing market demand, and pay tribute to different cultures.

In July this year, when the "black life is life" protest swept the world, Dior was caught in a storm of public opinion, because all white models were selected at the Gaoding Women's Wear Conference. A week later, Kim Jones only chose black models in his 202 1 spring collection. This series was designed in cooperation with Amoa Ko Boafo, a famous portrait painter in Ghana.

Through Dior, Beaufort's large-scale and fascinating texture portrait with black theme occupied the whole room. "For me, it is time to praise African artists, just as we praise American artists or Japanese artists. Because Dior is a truly global brand. " Kim Jones said.

So far, artistic cooperation has always been a fixed feature of Kim Jones during his tenure at Dior: from Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama to Sean, the originator of fashion brands? Stussi, then Daniel? Daniel Arsham, through his understanding of the countermeasure exhibition, will brand founder Christine? Christian dior used to be a gallery owner in his fashion show, so now the cooperation with artists has become a continuation of Dior.

He not only creatively combined street, art and high fashion, but also failed to live up to or even exceeded the expectation of Pietro Beccari, CEO of Dior, to further develop Dior menswear on a global scale.

He held fashion shows in Tokyo and Paris respectively. The first front row of Dior Fashion Week 20 19 was packed with celebrities such as naomi campbell, Kate Moss and victoria beckham, which was the most famous fashion week in Dior's history.

The benefits of these three festivals far exceeded expectations, but Kim Jones attributed his ability to his personality.

"I run very fast. I have always been like this. Indecision is a terrible thing, showing weakness of character. You need to know what you like. If people don't know, it means they don't know themselves. " Kim Jones has always been a decisive person, and he also likes to keep a down-to-earth low profile.

In today's world, fashion designers are active on the covers of social media and fashion magazines every day. By contrast, this half-Danish British designer is abnormal. His social account is almost only used to promote his work.

He has many famous friends, from marc jacobs, kanye west and alexander mcqueen, both designers, to international supermodel Kate Moss and "Black Pearl" naomi campbell, to football player David Beckham, and many famous musicians. But the fame game doesn't suit him. "I do my job because I love it, not because I want to be famous. I think many people who want to be famous have not done their jobs well. "

In order to keep abreast of the market demand and get inspiration, Kim Jones has always kept people of different ages in his social circle. "I play with people who are 18 years old. I have many model friends who work with us. I will ask them what they like, what they are watching and what music they are playing. "

Personality achievement ability, under the epidemic, even the most famous luxury brands are facing great challenges brought by the epidemic, which also urges brands to strive for more talented designers, and Kim Jones is one of them.

This is the second chief designer transfer of LVMH Group to which Fendi belongs since the epidemic. In June this year, the world's largest luxury goods group just appointed matthew williams as the new designer of Givenchy. This reflects that this luxury empire is still committed to promoting the development of its brands and designers while the future of its entire traditional industrial chain is still in doubt.

Considering the conflict of personal styles, designer cooperation may be risky. However, just as miuccia prada decided to appoint raf simons as the co-creative director of Prada, the partnership between Kim Jones and Fendi may also herald a new way of team building in fashion. Talented people can always get more reuse. Talented people like Kim Jones and Virgil Hablot (the founder of off-white, the first black art director of LV) will increasingly take on multiple design responsibilities in top fashion companies in the future.

For Kim Jones, this appointment is also a big challenge in his career. In addition to double the workload, this is also his first time to set foot in women's design. In the fashion world, women's clothing is undoubtedly more important and meticulous, but it also hides greater profits, which requires sufficient strength to control.

Now that he is "on the verge of death", he is naturally expected to exert magic for Fendi under the epidemic. It is reported that Kim Jones' Fendi debut is scheduled to be held in Milan autumn and winter fashion week in February next year. Obviously, this will be a heavy debut focusing on the expectations of the entire fashion industry.

How will Kim Jones lead Fendi to break through? Can Fendi concoct the success of LV and Dior among the younger generation? Facing the controversial fur industry, how will he create a new path for Fendi's main fur series?

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