Kim Jones is getting back into the Kim Jones business.
The British designer, who ended his seven-year run as the artistic director of Dior Men in 2025, announced on Monday that he will launch a new namesake label next year. It’s a full-circle moment for Jones, who started his career with an eponymous line in 2003, long before his name became synonymous with an uncanny ability to reinvigorate old luxury houses through high-profile collaborations.
The first Kim Jones collection is slated to launch online in mid-2027, with much of the clothing made in Japan and leather goods produced in Italy; an accompanying press release notes that this manufacturing approach will come at “a considered price point.” Joining Jones in this endeavor is his longtime deputy designer, Lucy Beeden. According to Business of Fashion, the brand will focus on menswear and tailoring with “genderless, versatile designs,” and its debut will feature a few designs from Jones’s archive, including reversible smoking jackets and patchwork shirts. (The language in the press release says the clothes will be “unrestricted by traditional categories.”) The brand will release two collections a year through monthly drops, and is also targeting to open a 4,000-square-foot flagship store in Hong Kong by October 2027.
Designer Kim Jones at a London launch event for his eponymous brand on October 9.
Darren Gerrish/Getty ImagesA graduate of Central Saint Martins, Jones built an early following with his own label, collaborating with Topman and Umbro and even consulting on Kanye West’s never-released Pastelle project. In 2008, he joined Dunhill as creative director, kicking off a run that included some of the biggest jobs in fashion: men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton, his post at Dior Men, and artistic director of womenswear at Fendi. (All three are owned by LVMH, but that is often how it works for a successful luxury designer: If you’re great at your job, the Arnault family wants you to clock in for another shift at a different mine.) Since leaving Fendi in 2024, Jones has maintained a lower profile, largely working with Chinese outerwear giant Bosideng. But a new Kim Jones label puts his name squarely back in the fashion-world conversation.
Jones’s influence on contemporary men’s fashion is hard to overstate. He may not have a singular calling card like Hedi Slimane’s skinny jeans or Demna’s oversized normcore, but he helped bring luxury fashion and streetwear into the same room. Most famously, he orchestrated the industry-upending Louis Vuitton x Supreme collaboration in 2017. Later, at Dior, he brought the legendary Shawn Stüssy to the fashion runway and unleashed other collaborations with Kaws, Raymond Pettibon, and Air Jordan. The late Virgil Abloh, who succeeded Jones at Louis Vuitton, once called Jones “the epitome of high fashion and streetwear.” Few designers have been as skilled at turning cultural obsessions and unlikely creative partnerships into splashy fashion moments. Jones, per today’s press release, says the project will “give me space to work with people I admire.” Given his track record, it’s probably safe to assume more collaborations are already in the works.
Jones isn’t the first game-changing designer to chart a new course after leaving the luxury-house system. Phoebe Philo launched her own label in 2023, and it has become one of the most closely watched and referenced new labels in the high-fashion biz. Elsewhere, big names like Clare Waight Keller and Donatella Versace have turned to mass-market brands like Uniqlo and Revolve for their post-luxury chapters.
“After many years working with incredible houses and collaborators, it feels like the right moment to do something under my own name again,” Jones said in the press statement. He also told Business of Fashion he isn’t sure he’ll ever return to a big luxury house. And for a designer who already helped rewrite the rules of the business, he might never have to.