Travel Merch Is The Coolest Merch – Just Ask Kim Jones

Recently, I have realised that there is nothing that I enjoy wearing more than travel merch. I have, in the past couple of years, added to my wardrobe of tight black dresses and stilettos: a Dollywood, Tennessee bum bag; a hoodie from Uganda’s Bwindi forest declaring that I trekked with its mountain gorillas; a cap from Donald Judd’s Chinati foundation in Marfa, Texas; a Tutankhamun make-up case. There is a painted tote bag from Bacalar in Mexico; a zip-up from Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum; a T-shirt from Tofino, British Columbia. They have, collectively, earned pride of place in my wardrobe, surpassing even the scattering of Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel – because despite the fact that they are made of mysterious synthetic fabrics and have pilled or disintegrated almost immediately, they feel particularly precious. They are little amulets of experiences I’ve loved and, rather than simply appearing static on my mantlepiece, they – and thus the memories they conjure – can exist as part of my everyday.

There is only one person in my life whose compulsive approach to amassing travel merch rivals mine: designer Kim Jones. Over the course of our friendship, I have witnessed him acquire and wear more Aman hotel hats and luggage tags than I can count: plain, coloured baseball caps that, through discrete embroidery, proclaim his affinity for his favourite hotels around the world. Kim is a world-renowned collector of some of the world’s most precious items (Virginia Woolf manuscripts; Picasso paintings; Lalanne sculptures; Leigh Bowery clothing; Hermès Kelly Dolls) – but, amidst the priceless artefacts, these caps and little leather tags (which Aman discreetly affix to your luggage upon your departure; a different colour for each destination) assume prized position for the fact that he says they remind him of some of his favourite memories – and the people he’s made them with. It makes perfect sense, then, that he has now partnered with Aman Essentials – the lifestyle arm of the renowned luxury hotel brand – to extend his uniquely well-informed vision into a capsule collection of clothing designed for their fanatical global community.

I am sat at Japanese breakfast at Aman’s astonishingly chic Tokyo outpost, which Kim describes as his favourite of the group’s city hotels as well as a home-from-home (a point underscored by the fact that he seems to know the names of not only every member of staff here, but also their children). It tracks: it bears more than a little resemblance to Jones’s London home: at once impressively minimalist and yet unquestionably cosy. Over a beautifully-arranged bowl of rice and pickles, he tells me that he first came here when visiting one of his closest friends, Lily Allen, who was staying in the hotel just before it opened in 2014 – but “the first time I went to any Aman was with Alister Mackie on an advertising shoot at Amangiri – to these giant concrete boxes in the [Utah] desert. I was just like, this place is fucking amazing, and then I went back to my room and saw they had a book full of them. I decided: I needed to go to all of these.” He’s since been to 30 of their 36 locations (he is, in fact, their number one customer) – from Aman-i-Khás, a tented camp in Rajasthan to spot Bengal tigers, to the twin-masted sailboat Amandira, which he has repeatedly commandeered to take his friends (including Kate Moss and Amber Valletta) on tours of Indonesia. “It’s always just so peaceful – and everything has been considered for you,” he explains. “That, today, is real luxury.”

“Everything here is purposeful,” echoes Kristina Romanova, the CEO of Aman Essentials – a sentiment that speaks both to the Japanese culture channelled throughout this hotel, and the perspective of Aman more broadly. “And part of Aman Essentials is, of course, the hotel merch, which people love to collect, so you can bring your memories home with you. But I see it as more than that: it’s an extension of the Aman lifestyle.” That sentiment is what colours their collaboration, which extends beyond, of course, a Kim Jones Aman baseball cap into the perfect striped silk pyjamas; a technical windbreaker designed for exploring the wilderness; a day-to-night draped silk dress in the same mossy green that colours Aman Kyoto. It’s essentially the perfect travel wardrobe – a category I can attest Kim really excels in (when he took me on my first safari a few years back, justifiably concerned about how ill-equipped I might be, he provided me with a suitcase of essentials, which included a loaned Aman cap) – but it also happily exists beyond each trip. Honestly, the knitted polo shirts and cotton shorts are simply perfect wherever you might wear them.

“We’re not only interested in your stay at the hotel: we’re also interested in what your life looks like outside of it,” continues Kristina. “At Aman, time slows down – and I think that’s the Aman lifestyle: the daily rituals that are the biggest luxury. In a world where we’re trying to optimise everything, it’s about being in the moment – and when it comes to the wardrobe, it’s not about dressing to impress, it’s about being comfortable in your own skin and what can help you achieve that. And, of course, Kim is the master of understated elegance, of beautiful simplicity underscored with functionality and purpose.”

Kim’s collection arrives in hotel boutiques and at Dover Street Market at a curious inflection point for the luxury market. Numbers are down almost across the board – and, whether you put that down to the tumultuous global economic and political climate, the relentless price hikes at brands, or simply a collective fatigue for the ever-expanding scale and pace of incessant consumption, clearly something needs to shift. “After Covid, I think the whole world realised that you don't always need another bag,” says Kim. “You want another life experience. So many people think that people just want to shop all the time, but it's not true: yes, they want to shop, but with purpose, and at the right price points. But thinking about how you spend your time... that’s luxury.” (Funnily enough, it’s a sentiment exactly echoed by the monk who arrives on my third day at the hotel to teach me about meditation. “Luxury is to take time for yourself,” he tells me while imploring me to integrate his practice into my everyday.)

Jones, of course, has a particularly well-informed read on the luxury market: over the course of his illustrious career, he has been responsible for some of the industry’s most pronounced success stories while heading three LVMH brands (at Louis Vuitton menswear; Dior menswear; and Fendi womenswear and couture), as well as transforming the shape of the industry through pioneering collaborations like his Louis Vuitton X Supreme collection, often considered one of the industry’s most notable turning points. He has, since leaving the conglomerate after two decades at its houses, begun a partnership with Chinese behemoth Bosideng and, just last week, announced the revival of his own, eponymous line, set to debut in 2027 with a vast Hong Kong flagship. But, while his Aman collection appears just as everyone begins to decree travel as luxury’s latest frontier, it appears born of instinct and joy. “Well, me and Kristina just became friends, realised we loved the same things... and then she just asked me if I wanted to do something,” he says. “For me, it was a dream: to have my own Aman cap with my name on it! A Kim Jones Aman cap!” For a man who has everything, that’s a pretty impressive testimonial – and its timely arrival a reminder that, sometimes, simply doing the things that make you happy pays the greatest dividends. I tell you what: nobody could have been happier than me to come home with one. Apart from, maybe, Kim.

Aman X Kim Jones is available now at Shop.aman.com