Kim Jones interview: the beauty of men's fashion

Kim Jones on the fourth floor office in the Paris headquarters of Louis Vuitton, rue de Pont Neuf, is full of organized clutter. Many things tidy ground cover and all surfaces framed pictures - an official portrait of an African family highest - are against a wall, crisp white sneakers online stacked on the floor in the middle of the shoe boxes and bags, complex tribal masks hanging shelves full of wooden works of art and brochures advertising campaigns to compete for space on the desktop, travel books, a backpack on a chair beside hung printing in detail the technical specifications of the bag. This is an attractive room. It feels like a place where you want to, one or two hours to dig a round. I am pleased that the office of Jones is also full of ideas and beautiful things that it creates collections style director Louis Vuitton Menswear. Chanel 2.55 Not too long ago, after all, the luxury men's fashion seems little thought or beauty, consisting, as it mainly, costumes, suits and blazers makes weird. But there is an area with great fashion reinvention, and the installation of BT Jones is a big part of it. Recent figures show that 40% of men's fashion is the world of fashion, upscale men now spend £ 155bn one year to clothing and accessories. You can not spend as much for tweed and brogues alone, and this increase coincided with a wave of creativity in luxury menswear. Since Marc Jacobs was installed as artistic director in 1997, Louis Vuitton is the reinvention of manufacturers handbags Fusty world's most valuable luxury brand was phenomenal. It is currently valued at $ 25.9bn. Kim Jones has essentially responsible for one of the fastest growing areas were to sit for one of the biggest fashion brands in the world. A position in which the designer 35 years, Columbia, sits in his office dressed in a gray sweater, chinos and trainers seemed unshakable good humor. "I started to buy the brand in 2002," Jones said. "If I had worked and saved a little money, I buy something from Louis Vuitton. Nobody else had really, even if it is a great brand because everything is done in limited qualities. So if you want something different, this is actually a good place to go. " Ten years ago no one would have thought, would eventually have Jones as creative director for the brand, which he saved his pennies. Not because it was not good, it's just that his reputation was established, its first Central Saint Martins MA in men's fashion in sportswear. Jones name was taken by his ability to outwit the seam. He took a traditional and invented the streetwear fashion conscious. "I thought at the University, the other day," he said. "Somebody asked me how I got into fashion, and I suddenly remembered that John Galliano has bought half of my graduate collection. It was a big thing, I think, but I did not know at the time. I was angry because I have a jacket that he wanted to buy for me, it was hard to do, and I could not keep it. " Jones has launched his own menswear label in 2002 to life - established a loyal following, especially in Japan - but unlike other young designers eager to make their name, it focuses instead on working with established brands. The list seems almost random - each from Alexander McQueen to Topshop, Mulberry Umbro. He worked in pastels, a label of Kanye West (who is a friend of his). He dabbled in art direction for magazines such as Dazed & Confused and Arena Homme +. "I love working with people," is his simple explanation, "form a team together of different people in different capacities. Designing clothes simply the work that I do. I'm not in this to be famous or recognized my name - I do not think I lived taken with people who are famous, and it is not nice to go out the door and have your photo I would like to jog to be able to shop around the corner "... He has worked on projects that interest them. He made clothes for temporary imaginative British football fans and Japanese fashion and all those who have shopped on the street. He came out, had a lot of fun. He is part of the straight-edge hardcore punk scene as he studied graphic design at Brighton, when he moved to London, she was the club scene in Hoxton, a passion which he paid tribute to his 2004 collection called Subtle Rave. Then, in 2008, he surprised the fashion world when he joined Dunhill, one of the brands heritage musty, but the combination was: he won the Menswear Designer of the British Fashion Council in 2009. At the time of his appointment was announced in 2011, Louis Vuitton, Jones seems to be the combination of imagination and the market for luxury goods like a good idea. He won the men's designer clothing in 2011 and was nominated again this year. When Jones in 2008 at the Dunhill was interviewed work, he used a nice twist of state of many luxury brands at the time. He said it was "important duty free." This is a good way to describe these expensive labels are nice enough, but you really do not buy when they are low and you are bored, waiting elsewhere. Voyage affected Kim Jones, Louis Vuitton on the subject. Do not knock-your-heels-in-the-departure hall boredom, but transcontinental international culture. "Louis Vuitton is the deep, luxurious appropriate. During all the old romantic movie they Vuitton luggage. Ads Liz Taylor collection of the Duke of Windsor. I think he still maintains that philosophy." His first three collections were inspired by various countries and their art and lifestyle. It is a concept that needs cosmopolitan feel of a brand that works. "When I spoke LVMH, my presentation was all about traveling and explorers. After all, this is a travel brand, which started with a tribe." He made his debut for the spring / summer 2012 is Africa, where he spent his childhood and the influence of 1970s fashion and nature photographer Peter Beard links meant that the club appeared and inspired costumes Besides scarves of Masai blankets on the podium. Autumn / Winter 2012 saw Paris and Tokyo, the examination of the 19 Century European craze for Japonisme - has something that influenced the LV logo - and the work of fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, who has lived in Tokyo in the 1980s. Elegant double-breasted silk kimono costumes presented. Lopez pen-and-arrow-motif has appeared on bags and pens. Collection of summer (which showed in June) is all about water and boating, especially the pleasure enjoyed by Yves Carcelle - CEO of Louis Vuitton, which is cited as an influence in the show notes. Jones has revised the stereotype of the nautical theme with yellow rubber duck anoraks, oversized backpacks that looked like buoys and leisure dapper blazer. The three collections show the spirit and skill and an insatiable interest and insight not only into the fabric and the shape, but also in art and culture that informs the work of Jones. "I wanted to inject fun into the brand," he said. "He optimism As with the last collection, that is the idea of ​​a really rich man on his yacht - 'S with.." The idea of ​​travel and movement between worlds comes easily to Jones. This is what he had done all his life. His father met his mother German Danish in the Canary Islands, and although he was born in London in 1979, the family moved to Ecuador, when he was three months. He spent his childhood in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and the Caribbean than to spend his father's job required a hydrogeologist. (His uncle is Colin Jones, a photographer and the viewer in the 1960s who also worked for National Geographic and Life magazine.) "It is amazing when you are a child of a good time in the middle of nowhere surrounded by animals to see how big and beautiful the world and be delighted with her. " His first memory of her dress shirt preferred when he was five years in Botswana. It had to be washed every night, so he can wear every day. It was awarded with a lion and the word "lion" was specified between the legs of the animal, he thought very smart. Years in Africa gave him a lifelong love for animals is their hero David Attenborough. Even if it was "the coolest man on the planet", the scientist, has unfortunately never inspire a collection, because he is wearing blue shirts and chinos. In order to replicate that would be on the podium to conceptually. Her older sister Nadia has lived in England (parents divorced when he was five years old) and stayed with her as a teenager. Nadia was the artistic director of the brand Oasis High Street for 14 years and has worked with Lily Allen on her fashion line Lucy in Disguise. She encourages him to go to fashion what. His collection of magazines The Face and iD, when he was 14 years old "I loved the people in them as they were fresh. Now I know most of them." Emma Hill, Mulberry leader, is the friend of her sister, and she used to babysit Kim when he was a child. "It's funny, this little world of fashion." When we was in July he met on holiday leaving the next day. "One of the nice things about working at Louis Vuitton is that you can grow 5 weeks in the summer, as the school." He goes to Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Suffolk. T he missed in Paris? He thought for a while. "I have a very nice place and the team is great and now I know where I can buy heat every week, and I found Marks & Spencer for food - it makes a difference .." He may as its lightness British, but it seems that Jones be in Paris for a while. "I can not emphasize enough how important this work is to say," he reminds me. "This is my dream job, and I have only 10 years after I left college." When you if you want fast, you do not have to wonder what will happen next? Jones thinks not. has enough to have to do here. "If you use your resources, you can do something. How many countries are there? About 200? Well, it is 200 collections, right there. I can be anywhere in the world."