PARIS — Yet one more high-profile design emptiness opened Friday when Fendi revealed that Kim Jones would step down after 4 eventful years as creative director of high fashion, ready-to-wear and fur collections for girls.
He’ll “now focus absolutely on his function of creative director at Dior Males’s,” the Roman home mentioned in a quick assertion issued late Friday.
The event comes amid fevered — and sometimes spurious — hypothesis in regards to the huge sport of musical chairs taking part in out on the highest echelons of European vogue.
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 not too long ago held discussions with designers together with Pierpaolo Piccioli, beforehand artistic director of Valentino.
In Friday’s assertion, the main focus was on Jones’ tenure, which introduced collaborations and vacation spot reveals into the combo.
The finale of the Fendi spring 2024 high fashion present in Paris.
Courtesy of Fendi
“Kim Jones made important contributions to the model’s artistic legacy, seamlessly integrating his trendy and cross-cultural aesthetics with Fendi’s historic heritage,” it mentioned. “Underneath his management, the maison reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, providing an inclusive and revolutionary method to vogue 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 chief govt officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, lauded Jones as “a extremely proficient designer who has introduced his distinctive and multicultural imaginative and prescient to Fendi over the previous 4 years. I want to thank him for his contribution and stay up for persevering with to witness his creativity for Dior Males’s.”
Jones was one of many uncommon designers to straddle two luxurious manufacturers in two nations.
Nonetheless, his exit from Fendi provides to the artistic upheaval roiling the business, at present grappling with a slowdown in luxurious consumption and shopper 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, in line with market sources. There are additionally artistic vacancies at Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Throughout his tenure at Fendi, Jones steadily 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 demise in 2019.
Jones additionally collaborated carefully with Silvia Venturini Fendi, creative director of equipment and menswear collections, and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi, jewellery artistic director, whom he thought-about a key muse.
Over the previous yr he spoke enthusiastically about preparations for Fendi’s centenary in 2025, whereas stopping in need of detailing particular plans.
When he joined Fendi, Jones grew to become the newest acclaimed menswear specialist to broaden his vogue 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.
He instructed WWD in an interview forward of his Fendi rtw debut in February 2021 that he merely needed to make “garments that girls will need to purchase. I’m not gonna lie — I believe that’s what my job is. I need all my mates to go, ‘I need that right away.’”
Fendi, fall 2021
He took satisfaction in business success, and steadily boasted that Fendi revenues grew throughout his tenure to surpass 2 billion euros.
His collections obtained principally constructive, although hardly ecstatic, evaluations, and it’s understood some LVMH insiders appeared dimly on a few of his initiatives 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 the Versace and Fendi web sites and boutiques.
A picture from the Fendace Fendi by Versace marketing campaign.
Courtesy of Fendace
In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a set inside Fendi’s spring 2023 girls’s assortment that was proven throughout New York Trend Week, and in addition teamed with Tiffany & Co. for particular Baguette purses. He adopted up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration below the brand new “Associates of Fendi” banner.
Jones additionally endured some administration turmoil throughout his four-year stint.
Final Might, Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou was appointed CEO of the Italian luxurious firm, which he took on along with his function 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 with Design Holding, forming Trend Furnishings Design (FF Design) to develop the Fendi Casa enterprise.
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 posh 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 has stepped up the tempo of collaborations, principally with wonderful artists together with Daniel Arsham, Kaws and Amoako Boafo, but in addition the surfwear maven Shawn Stussy, and the Jordan model. The latter yielded some of the sought-after sneakers of 2020, the Air Jordan 1 OG Dior limited-edition.
Jones has had a storied vogue profession, with Galliano snapping up his graduate assortment from Central Saint Martins.
He initially launched a signature menswear label. Recognized 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.