A gaggle of giant, delightful cats populated the Dior catwalk this season. They were blown up versions of colourful ceramics made by Hylton Nel. Kim Jones has known the South African artist for over a decade and notes Nel’s studio in Karoo outside of Cape Town as an ongoing inspiration. “Like Hylton, I am a magpie, an invertebrate collector,” says Jones. “His house and his studio are one, there is no separation – what he does and how he lives is really who he is.”
Having supported an exhibition of Nel’s at Charleston House last year, Jones set upon fusing the artist’s distinctive figures with the craft at the heart of the house’s DNA for his SS25 collection. As a live recording of Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’ flooded the space, out came a procession of Jones’ signature boyish shorts, romantic tailoring and stomper boots. Cutesy sketches from Nel danced across bedazzled twinsets and gloriously graced gentle knits in pale pinks, greens and blues – informed by the natural palette of Jones’ visits to Nel’s home over the years.
Elsewhere, pins of hand-drawn cats and dogs fastened wrap-around suit jackets in handsome greys and shimmering greens, while ceramic rocks dangled from woven bucket hats co-designed by Stephen Jones and Cape Town-based brand Earth Age.
What was brilliant to see was Jones’ ability to draw parallels with Nel’s practice and the codes that’ve shaped Dior’s past (brilliant ceramic collars were, for example, informed by an sketch for a jacket from Yves Saint Laurent’s time at the house that never went into production). It made for a cracking collection with serious heart.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
