Kim Jones is officially a knight. The British designer will be made chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur at an award ceremony held in Paris today, a little after his Autumn/Winter 2025 show for the house of Dior.
The Légion d’Honneur is France’s highest distinction, and can be also given to non-French citizens for actions that benefit the country. Jones has been artistic director of menswear at Dior since 2018, where he “moved menswear to a brilliantly lit place where a vision of classical cut, youth and modernity finally gelled”, as Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower wrote in her review of his AW19 collection. Christian Dior Couture generated sales of €9.4 billion in 2023, according to HSBC estimates. A fraction of which is generated by menswear and men’s leather accessories; and that fraction, designed by Jones, is proving resilient in a difficult economic environment, according to analysts. “While womenswear saw buoyant growth followed by a contraction at Dior, menswear is less volatile and continues to be performing well,” says Mario Ortelli, managing partner of luxury advisory firm Ortelli & Co.
Until October 2024, Jones also held the artistic director post for womenswear and couture at Fendi, where he worked since 2020. Before that, he was men’s artistic director for Louis Vuitton. The designer was also honoured an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020.
A few days before the ceremony, he sat down with me to discuss his award, the future of menswear and some of the inspirations behind his design language.
Vogue: Congratulations on being made chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. How does it feel?
It’s good, isn’t it? It’s a big honour. I’ve been working in France for 15 years and for the biggest houses in the world, so it’s really lovely to be rewarded for it and recognised; this is a life milestone. I don’t think about things too much. I just get on with them. So when the letter came, I was quite surprised and I did have a cry because I wish my parents were alive to see things like this.
Vogue: You told The Guardian in 2019 — “I do my job because I love it, not because I want to be famous.”
