Kim Jones understands that the allure of fragility lies in its impermanence — the way something teeters on the edge of breaking holds an almost sacred value. This philosophy takes shape in Dior’s Summer 2025 bag collection, where the art of Hylton Nel serves as both muse and mirror.

Inspired by the soft curves of Nel’s ceramic works, the collection is a study in contrasts: the Dior Normandie, for instance, features metal studs arranged into floral and animal motifs, echoing the baroque decadence of hand-glazed ceramics. It is a tribute to the textured surfaces of antiquity, like a relic of a time when ornamentation was language. Meanwhile, the Dior Micro Saddle, with its fluid silhouette, evokes the marble folds of classical sculpture — curves rendered in leather with the precision of porcelain.

Through masterful leatherwork and nuanced details, paired with the playful design of Hylton Nel’s emblematic cat reinterpretation, Jones reimagines the concept of lasting beauty not as something unbreakable, but as an homage to the elegance of what might shatter. Delicate yet enduring, like an artifact frozen in the moment of its creation.

Photography Lara Giliberto

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