In his five years at Dior Men, artistic director Kim Jones has transformed the brand by blending a streetwear-inspired vision with the fluid tailoring that defines much of the house’s legacy. One such tactic to achieve this seamless integration? A constant choice to collaborate with the biggest and the baddest names in the streetwear community. As of late, the public has witnessed a partnership with Supreme-alum Tremaine Emory’s Denim Tears, a capsule designed with Eli Russell Linnetz’s Venice beach label ERL, and more link-ups in the likes of Dior x Stüssy, Dior x 1017 ALYX 9SM, Dior x Nike, Dior x Daniel Arsham… You get the idea.

For 2024, Kim Jones continues his legacy of partnerships, teaming up with Italian street label Stone Island for a new collaborative capsule. And already, the capsule has gone viral. Nautical star motifs appear embossed on circular leather bags, parallel to the latter’s compass rose logo. Button-on logo patches affixed with Stone Island’s branding rest squarely below that of Dior Men’s, appearing across offerings like shorts, gilets, cardigans and embellished blousons.

The capsule spotlights the hues of mustard, taupe, grey, pink, cerulean, mint and black — nearly as comprehensive as the palettes of Stone Island’s rainbow-variant collections, and true to the shared thematic vision of “Alchemy of Colour”. To achieve this, Stone Island’s signature garment dyeing technique is utilised and then magnified, with new techniques like garment-dyed embroidery that recalls that of Dior’s Haute Couture 1955 archive.

Noteworthy too, are the shoes. Bridging Stone Island’s commitment to technical functionality and Dior Men’s haute couture know-hows, is the common material of silk. A military mainstay and simultaneously a staple in fine-dressing, silk navigates its way to the soles of the collection, as the foundations for the maison’s Oblique imagery to manifest. Other offerings include boots and derbies, made casual with gorpcore-esque sensibilities. A trekking-proof element is imbued in thickened soles, and strengthened with triple mouldings.

“There is a meeting of Monsieur Dior and Massimo Osti’s work for Stone Island in this collection — it is the coming together of ‘obsessives.’ They might have been people from opposite ends of the fashion spectrum — from an haute couture vision to that of military functionality — yet I think they’d recognise something in each other and in what they achieved through clothing. Here, in the coming together of contrasting traditions, there’s a new kind of clothing alchemy,” says Kim Jones in a presser.

Stone Island x Dior Men will be pre-released in select boutiques come June 14, and worldwide from July 4. Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our May 2024 issue.