Space Age

Sexy robots and technicolor lights mark the future of Dior Men under fashion wizard Kim Jones

- Shivangi Lolayekar

The hypnotic Robot Restaurant in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district in Shinjuku may be the after-hours playground of Japan’s salarymen, but on this occasion it’s been turned into a one-night delight for a collective of editors from across the globe, layered in edgy, luxe streetwear to keep up with the island country’s unmatched fashion cred.

It’s the night before Dior Men’s Pre-Fall 2019 show, and the Parisian house, unlike its compeers, who’d treat you to a Michelin-star dinner, has set us up for a bizarre, mind-altering visual experience as a precursor for things to come. The only requirement? A full phone battery, because this is going to be Insta gold, and you’d want to give everyone on the outside some serious life envy.

The legendary Robot show inside the multistorey space, with a trippy stairwell and 3D wallpaper, is the stuff of TripAdvisor top ratings: blaring pop music egging on neon-covered warrior princesses and stuffed, life-sized pandas to fight ten-foot-tall robots under ricocheting laser beams. As I inhale a bento box and sip on potent sake from a lit-up Dior x Robot lightbulb, an ageless Kate Moss on the opposite side of the YMCA-like courtside seating half distracts me from the 90-minute futuristic spectacle. Next to her is a cool and collected Kim Jones, the man in the creative high chair of Dior Men.