Craft and the texture of a life lived in a body of work are at the heart of the Dior Summer 2025 collection. Embracing the motifs, figuration and almost homespun monumentalism of the South African ceramicist Hylton Nel, Artistic Director Kim Jones continues to explore and advance global ideas of savoir-faire without hierarchy in the collection. Together with a further development in his signature take on luxury and utility, men’s workwear and the women’s haute couture archive surrender new meaning this season, combining functionality, longevity and legacy.
Silhouettes are at once sculptural and practical, borrowing from the language of ceramics in both form and finishings. The humble and the noble are combined in fabrications, while the functionality of workwear is flourished with the influence of the cut of archival couture or the handcraft of the Dior ateliers.
In tailoring and outerwear, rounded volumes predominate, giving a sensuous finish to something at times more forthright. Archival haute couture is given new life when applied to this season’s world, perhaps most significantly and startlingly in the finding of an unrealised Saint-Laurent sketch for a coat from the Autumn-Winter 1958 season.
In the collection it appears fully realised for the first time while informing further tailored looks. The scarf collar motif that runs throughout the collection is taken from another Saint-Laurent piece, Negatif, from Autumn-Winter 1960. Here realised as a mock ceramic structure in a completely original artisanal process that took months to achieve. Meanwhile, knitwear echoes sculptural form, simultaneously encompassing playful patterns, prints and ceramic fastenings, all gleaned from Hylton Nel’s world.
Accessories are at once playful and practical, made with customary precision and elevated elan.
Footwear concentrates on one of the most traditional working shoes: the clog. Eschewing its cliched image and embracing its more time-honoured form as an enclosed shoe or boot, the clogs of the collection are all handcrafted, utilising elevated materials such as beech wood and calf leather. Metamorphosing into signature derbys and biker boots, the wooden sole is modified with rubber for comfort and ease. The influence of the studded decorations on the clog, a further delineation of Hylton Nel’s ‘sigils,’ also inspired the studded embroidery on clothing and bags.
An icon of Dior style for 25 years, the Saddle is the main carrier of the collection. At times its construction is softened and its curvilinear contours inform other silhouettes. Humble and noble materials find expression at once in the bags, where hardwearing canvas can be counterpointed with raffia or leather.
The cloche hats interspersed throughout appear as a final craft full stop. Designed by Stephen Jones in conjunction with Earth Age, a South African company based in Cape Town, local craftspeople were commissioned to hand crochet each cloche. Ceramic beads are applied in Paris, with a sense of differing ateliers coming together without hierarchy; the homespun and the salon, the global with the local. The artisans’ skill, intent and pride in their work unites all.
