Deft Punk

For Dior Men Winter ‘19, Kim Jones’s modernity and artist Raymond Pettibon’s punk sensibilities come together to propel the French house into a new direction.

- Bryan Goh

One might not think it, but Monsieur Christian Dior was one of the punks of his generation. In an era where the preferred choices of careers were businessmen, diplomats or anything “dignified”, Monsieur Dior decided to quit school and owned an art gallery for three years before shuttering it due to the Great Depression.

This sentimental love for art is not lost on creative director Kim Jones as seen with his previous collaborations with artists, KAWS for Summer ‘19 and Hajime Sorayama in Pre-Fall ‘19 – a punk sensibility peeks through the juxtaposition of street versus luxury and commercial versus arty. Jones’s punk streak comes from his personal love and collection of 1970s British punk garments and accessories.

Fast forward to today, people take the theme “punk” at face value (recall Met Gala 2013), and there are not many contenders for true punks. Hence, for Dior Men Winter ‘19, Jones decided to turn one eye towards the future for contemporary clothing and the other eye into the past at a punk who has truly lived punk – famed 1970s American artist Raymond Pettibon.

Have you seen American hardcore punk band Black Flag’s logo tattooed on the skin of some baby boomers? Raymond Pettibon designed that. What about the two shaggy-haired lads with dark frames on Sonic Youth’s Goo in the 1990s? That was also illustrated by Pettibon. The wave of artists who illustrate using aggressive line art, inject politically-driven statements, and feature pop-culture characters (Batman, Superman, and Felix The Cat) in their artwork would most likely cite Raymond Pettibon as their inspiration.