Kim Jones and Fendi are parting methods after an eventful four-year collaboration that noticed the Roman home dabble with collaborations, and vacation spot exhibits.
The British designer, whose title at Fendi was creative director of high fashion, ready-to-wear and fur collections for ladies, is to proceed in his position as creative director of males’s collections at Dior in Paris.
Fendi guardian LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton introduced Jones’ exit in a quick assertion late Friday.
“Kim Jones made vital contributions to the model’s artistic legacy, seamlessly integrating his fashionable and cross-cultural aesthetics with Fendi’s historic heritage,” the joint assertion stated. “Below his management, the maison reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, providing an inclusive and progressive method to trend that consistently renewed Fendi’s Italian codes. All through his 4 years, Jones’ work was wholly guided by ardour and creativity.”
Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, lauded Jones as “a extremely gifted designer who has introduced his distinctive and multicultural imaginative and prescient to Fendi over the previous 4 years. I wish to thank him for his contribution and look ahead to persevering with to witness his creativity for Dior Males’s.”
There was no point out of the succession plan, solely that “a brand new artistic group for Fendi” can be introduced “in due time.”
In keeping with market sources, Fendi has lately held discussions with designers together with Pierpaolo Piccioli, beforehand artistic director of Valentino.
The exit of Jones creates one other high-profile emptiness and provides to the artistic upheaval roiling the business, at the moment grappling with a slowdown in luxurious consumption and client warning.
As reported, the employment contracts of John Galliano at Maison Margiela, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, and Lucie and Luke Meier at Jil Sander are coming to time period earlier than the top of the yr or in early 2025, based on market sources. There are additionally artistic vacancies at Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Throughout his tenure at Fendi, Jones ceaselessly referenced ready-to-wear designed by Karl Lagerfeld, who had famously created furs and girls’s rtw for the Roman home from 1965 till his loss of life in 2019.
Jones additionally collaborated carefully with Silvia Venturini Fendi, creative director of equipment and males’s put on collections, and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi, jewellery artistic director, whom he thought-about a key muse.
Over the previous yr, he additionally spoke enthusiastically about preparations for Fendi’s centenary in 2025, whereas stopping wanting detailing particular plans.
When he joined Fendi, Jones grew to become the newest acclaimed menswear specialist to broaden his trend universe to womenswear, following on the heels of Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons.
For his first crack at Fendi, he took a client-focused method centered on actual garments and the approach to life wants of his shut circle of feminine mates, which incorporates the likes of Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Ronnie Cooke Newhouse and Victoria Beckham.
Fendi RTW Fall 2021
Courtesy of Fendi
He advised WWD in an interview forward of his Fendi rtw debut in February 2021 that he merely needed to make “garments that ladies will need to purchase. I’m not gonna lie. I feel that’s what my job is. I would like all my mates to go, ‘I would like that immediately.’”
He took delight in industrial success, and ceaselessly boasted that Fendi revenues practically tripled throughout his tenure to surpass 2 billion euros.
His collections obtained largely constructive, although hardly ecstatic, critiques, and it’s understood some LVMH insiders regarded dimly on a few of his tasks at Fendi.
In September 2021, he shocked the style world by pioneering a full artistic swap: Donatella Versace designed a Fendi assortment and Jones a Versace lineup for pre-fall 2022 retailing. They had been recognized collectively because the Fendace collections and had been bought at pop-ups throughout the globe, along with Versace and Fendi web sites and boutiques.
In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a group inside Fendi’s spring 2023 ladies’s assortment that was proven throughout New York Trend Week, and likewise teamed with Tiffany & Co. for particular Baguette purses. He adopted up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration beneath the brand new “Mates of Fendi” banner.
A picture from the Fendace Fendi by Versace marketing campaign.
Courtesy of Fendace
Jones additionally endured some administration turmoil throughout his four-year stint.
Final Might, Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou was appointed chief government officer of the Italian luxurious firm, which he took on along with his position as managing director of LVMH Trend Group.
He succeeded Serge Brunschwig, who served for six years as chairman and CEO of Fendi, constructing the model’s retail community, investing in its industrial infrastructure, and forging a three way partnership wth Design Holding, forming Trend Furnishings Design (FF Design) to develop the Fendi Casa enterprise.
Fendi Couture Spring 2024
Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
A veteran of LVMH, Jones got here on board in 2011 as males’s creative director at Louis Vuitton, parlaying his zest for unique journey into ultra-luxurious collections with understated cool and sly performance. He helped ignite the luxurious streetwear phenomenon with the landmark 2017 collaboration with Supreme, the cult New York skatewear model.
Since becoming a member of the boys’s division of Dior in 2018, Jones stepped up the tempo of collaborations, largely with high quality artists together with Daniel Arsham, Kaws and Amoako Boafo, but in addition the surfwear maven Shawn Stussy, and the Jordan model. The latter yielded one of the vital sought-after sneakers of 2020, the Air Jordan 1 OG Dior limited-edition.
British clothier Kim Jones.
Alasdair McLellan/Courtesy of Fendi
Jones has had a storied trend profession, with Galliano snapping up his graduate assortment from Central Saint Martins.
He initially launched a signature menswear label. Identified for its sporty, streetwear edge, the Kim Jones model lasted for eight seasons and attracted the eye of Dunhill, the place he was artistic director from 2008 to 2011.
