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Last week, reports surfaced speculating a possible collaborative effort between Dior and Jordan Brand. While nothing pertaining to those rumours has been confirmed, instead, the French fashion house has revealed another partnership with Shawn Stussy. The brains behind his eponymous label, the godfather of ’90s streetwear has come out of retirement to add his own experience to Dior pre-Fall 2020. According to an interview from WWD, the creative duo will create exclusive imagery for the forthcoming collection.
Since his arrival to Dior menswear in 2018, Kim Jones has ushered in a new era of street-inspired silhouettes for the luxury house, with collaborations from the likes of KAWS and Daniel Arsham. And for Stussy, there was no question as to whether he should join the fellow visionary.
“There wasn’t much luring,” Stussy told WWD in Paris. “I was just in a good place in my adventure, and he’s in a good place, and the stars just seemed to kind of line up. And if I’m going to come out for a last hurrah, why not with Dior?
“For me to work with someone like Shawn is a real honour. He’s an artist, that’s the thing. If you can work that line like that, and it’s that memorable, it’s like an artist. That’s why I wanted to do it with him: he’s made an iconic image with his hand,” said Jones.
With the Dior pre-Fall 2020 Menswear collection set to be shown on December 3 at Art Basel Miami, the imagery is reported to draw from the bold colors of Miami’s historic Art Deco architecture. Working from a black-and-white artwork Stussy submitted to the brand, select items were said to have demanded upwards of 2,600 hours of labour-intensive beading. For the other pieces, the Dior team outsourced unique Japanese printing processes to create marble-like effects. Unlike some collaborations seen in today’s fast fashion whirlpool, it hones in on luxury technique, something Stussy found a deep appreciation for.
“That’s what intrigued me, is when he started talking about taking my kind of iconic art work and putting it into these couture methods,” Stussy recalled. “I have zero interest in going and printing some $40 USD T-shirts, but to do this was really an eye opener.”
Stay tuned for the collection as it is shown on December 3.
