Kim Jones to make Fendi debut in Paris Bourse in January

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Dec 14, 2020

It’s off to the former stock exchange for Kim Jones, who will present his debut collection for the house of Fendi inside the Paris Bourse during the next French haute couture season.

 
“Fendi is delighted to announce that Kim Jones will present his first ever Fendi Couture collection for Spring/Summer 2021 on Wednesday 27th January in the Palais Brongniart,” said Fendi in a release, using the official title of the former French stock exchange.
 
The decision comes as a surprise, as Jones had been expected to make his Fendi runway debut during the ready-to-wear season in February. However in his other current position as creative director of menswear at Christian Dior, Jones has increasingly injected elements of couture into his designs.
 
Located in Paris’ second arrondissement, the Palais Brongniart has been the scene of many major fashion shows – from Yohji Yamamoto to Yves Saint Laurent, when Stefano Pilati made his debut at that house a decade and a half ago.
 
Founded in 1925, Fendi only staged its first haute couture collection in Paris in 2015 in the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, with a show that also celebrated the 50th anniversary of Karl Lagerfeld at the helm of the Roman house.
 
Lagerfeld was to stage three couture shows for Fendi, the second on top of a Perspex catwalk built over the Trevi Fountain in Rome, for whose restoration the house footed the bill; and finally in 2018 back in Paris again.
 
Subsequently, Fendi staged a spectacular Dawn of Romanity collection designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi in the Roman Forum, a night-time event inside the Temple of Venus, where the house again paid for substantial renovations.
 
In its release, the house noted that Silvia Fendi and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi would participate in the creation as artistic director of accessories and menswear, and jewelry creative director, respectively.
 
Intriguingly, Fendi also released the names of all the senior backstage team who will participate, an example of Jones’ open, democratic and collegial approach to design.
 
The Jones’ team for his Paris debut will be composed of: creative director, Ronnie Cooke Newhouse; stylist, Alister Mackie; Photographer, Paolo Roversi; hair, Sam McKnight and makeup, Peter Phillips. While Jean-Hugues de Chatillon will be in charge of set design; Shelley Durkan of casting; and models Adwoa Aboah and Thatcher Thornton will round out his crew.
 
Previous Fendi couture shows have never been connected to a specific season, only year, so Jones’ debut will also be the first spring-summer couture collection from the Roman luxury brand, which was born as a high-end fur marque.
 
At Dior, Jones has been noted for linking with fine artists in his menswear shows – from KAWS in his Dior debut in Paris, to Japanese artists Hajime Sorayama who built a 40-foot female robot as a centrepiece of Kim’s show in Tokyo.