Kim Jones brought Dior Men to his hometown , London , for a stadium-sized takeover of Kensington Olympia today . He gathered together a local community of young designers and students and flown-in international guests for a show based on a time-traveling convergence between his obsession with Jack Kerouac and the Beat generation and , of course , the house of Christian Dior .
“ They were both pushing for youth ,” Jones said . The link he made was in a study of the subversive counterculture — the birth of cool — that was being seeded on both sides of the Atlantic in the aftermath of World War II in the late 1950s . In the back of his mind was his impressionable teenage memory of being taken by his parents to see the Beat Museum in San Francisco , which holds Kerouac ’ s tweed jacket among its relics .
On the runway was an 80-meter-long facsimile of On the Road , originally typed in a continuous stream-of-consciousness scroll by Kerouac . “ When you ’ re a late teen , you get interested ,” said Jones . “ It ’ s a rite-of-passage book .” Kerouac ’ s radical novel was eventually published in 1957 , the year Christian Dior died . That was when the 24-year-old Yves Saint Laurent took over , briefly but momentously coming out with his “ Beat collection ,” the first haute couture show to dare to signal the rise of rebellious youth culture . His Chicago crocodile motorcycle jacket scandalized fashion critics and led to the house manipulating his exit from Dior .
Get 1 year of American Vogue + a limited edition tote . Subscribe now . But youth always wins , no matter how hard the times . The Beat generation signified being broke , antiestablishment , and the power of youth to make its own revolution through sex , drugs , drink , jazz , and inventing a style and a language in defiance of social norms . Maybe that was the subliminal message Jones had in mind for the crowd of kids spectating on his idea of bringing the freewheeling freedom of ’ 50s Americana up to date for today ’ s generation in “ a suitcase that ’ s being unpacked every day in a different way .”
It had bias-cut checked tweed jackets and coats and ankle-cropped ’ 50s flood pants that flashed sequined socks over hiking boots . Fair Isle sweaters and beanies gleamed with overlays of transparent paillettes . Trench coats were hybridized with backpacks . Skinny dad ties were pinned on shirts collaged from strips of glitter and toile de Jouy . There were slouchy mélange sweaters and knitted sweatpants tucked into boots , shearling aviator jackets , and a leather motorcycle jacket painted with an image adapted from the cover graphics of Kerouac ’ s posthumously published novel , Visions of Cody .
Jones made it a whole night out of immersive entertainment for all : There was a surprise appearance by Grace Jones at the after-party . Also to be taken in was the one-off exhibition of the museum-grade collection of rare Kerouac first editions and memorabilia that the designer has accumulated . “ It tells the story of the collection through a library , my library ,” he said .
There were materials pertaining to Kerouac ’ s friends Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg , right up to manuscripts illustrating how his work influenced Bob Dylan , Jim Morrison , Lou Reed , Patti Smith , and Andy Warhol . Peering into the vitrines , guests were invited to discover how Kerouac ’ s reading Proust and Arthur Rimbaud fit into the picture .
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