Why is Kim Jones Launching His Eponymous Brand in Hong Kong?

Widely regarded as one of the most influential forces in modern menswear, Kim Jones is launching his eponymous brand. And he’s doing it in a surprising location: Hong Kong.

In addition to launching his label through his own e-commerce site in mid-2027, Kim Jones will also launch via a standalone store at Hong Kong’s Central Yards, an ambitious $8 billion mixed-use project by property developer Henderson Land — the first phase of which is scheduled to open in October 2027. The “groundscraper,” which will stretch about 400 meters horizontally along Victoria Harbour and is directly adjacent to the high-end shopping mall IFC, is set to transform the city’s skyline. Additional stockists for Jones’s label across Asia and selected retail partners will follow. Henderson Land plans to host an event marking 50 years in the business on October 13 (one hopes more details of the partnership might be revealed then).

“After many years working with incredible houses and collaborators, it feels like the right moment to do something under my own name again. This brings together the things I’ve always been interested in — fashion, art and design — and gives me the space to work with people I admire and explore new ideas. I’m excited about what comes next,” said Jones in a statement.

Jones’s designs will be made predominantly in Japan, with leather goods made in Italy, at “a considered price point,” according to the brand’s release, without specific figures. It also said that Jones would offer “a broader wardrobe unrestricted by traditional categories,” suggesting that the clothing would be fluid and genderless. Jones may also likely expand his vision into other mediums beyond clothing.

Jones has long had a deeply personal connection to Asia. The designer, who in an October 2025 interview with the Financial Times said that “Asia is the future,” has consistently channeled his love for the continent into his work at Dior Homme and Fendi, where he was most recently creative director, blending the houses’ European heritage with local craftsmanship from the East and high-profile regional collaborations. (While at Dior, for example, Jones partnered with prominent Asian creatives, such as the Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama and the Korean-American designer Yoon Ahn. He also collaborated with K-pop group BTS to create custom stage outfits for their world tour, marking the first time that the French luxury house had designed stage attire for a pop band.)

After leaving Fendi and Dior Homme in 2024 and 2025, respectively, Jones pivoted his career towards Asia, seeking new consumer bases and cultural exchanges for his creative platform Kim Jones Studio. He collaborated with Chinese electric car manufacturer Avatr on a limited-edition Avatr 012 luxury sedan in 2024. In October 2025, he was appointed creative director of Areal, a sub-brand of Shanghai-based outerwear label Bosideng. And last June, he unveiled his first capsule collection for Aman Essentials, the lifestyle and wellness brand by Aman, known for its ultra-luxurious hotels and resorts in Asia and beyond.

Other high-profile Western fashion designers have recently been finding opportunities in the East: In January, Francesco Risso, the former creative director of Marni, became the creative director for casualwear brand GU (owned by Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing). And in September, the Chinese fashion brand Icicle (part of the ICCF Group, which also owns French fashion label Carven) announced it had hired former Gucci designer Sabato de Sarno as its creative director.

Still, the choice of location for Jones’s brand may surprise some. Hong Kong has traditionally been a financial and trading hub due to its geographic and economic proximity to China and historic cultural ties to the West, rather than a fashion capital like Shanghai, Seoul or Tokyo. However, initiatives like the recently restructured Hong Kong Fashion Fest (which spotlights homegrown designers) have helped pave the way for a growing local creative scene.

Jones himself also has a longstanding relationship with Hong Kong. During his tenure as creative director of the British tailoring brand Dunhill (2008-2011), he spent significant time in the city, telling the Financial Times in 2025 that he “actually learned most of what [he] knows about the tailoring business here.” Hong Kong subsequently served as a major commercial hub for the collections Jones designed for Louis Vuitton and Fendi, and was selected for the Dior Men’s Pre-Fall 2024 show — though it was ultimately postponed after Louis Vuitton’s similar Pre-Fall show in the city a few months earlier. (Dior never officially explained its reasoning.)

Moreover, Hong Kong’s retail sales, which had been choppy following the Covid-19 pandemic, have also recently enjoyed a strong, multi-month recovery, driven by high-spending tourism, mega events, and resilient demand for hard luxury such as jewelry and watches. The city remains a major wealth hub in Asia, ranking fourth globally as the costliest city for wealthy individuals to “live well”, according to the 2026 Julius Baer Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report, and is consistently listed as the most expensive housing market in the world.

“Hong Kong remains the definitive strategic gateway to the Asian luxury market,” says Kieran Ho, a veteran in the Hong Kong fashion industry across editorial and public relations. “We are currently witnessing a quality-of-life renaissance in the city; with Hong Kong recently securing top global rankings for the world’s best hotel and the world’s best bar, we are seeing a significant influx of high-net-worth travelers who are spending intentionally.”

The Kim Jones launch is a win for Central Yards, with the second phase expected to be completed in 2032. It is unclear whether the developer and Jones struck a special retail agreement. Shopping malls worldwide often agree to custom lease terms with high-profile tenants, particularly those that drive prestige, foot traffic, and high-spending customers. These may include financial incentives, such as reduced base rents with a percentage of store sales (instead of fixed-rate commercial leases) or generous fit-out allowances (where landlords contribute towards building out expensive, custom store designs).

Ho also points to Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” framework, which makes it an ideal testing ground and launchpad for international companies and designers entering the mainland Chinese market, as well as a platform for regional expansion. “From a business perspective, Hong Kong’s infrastructure and unique tax position, specifically its status as a free port, make it an unparalleled experimental playground,” Ho says.

Beyond Central Yards, Hong Kong’s Central district (the city’s main financial, corporate, and commercial hub) is “going through quite a big refresh right now,” says the Hong Kong-based stylist and consultant Justine Lee. “There’s a lot of renewal in the process. When you walk around, you find so many flagships under renovation, shopfronts are boarded up, and walkways are blocked off.” An international luxury brand she spoke with recently is currently shopping for a location in Hong Kong to open its new boutique, she says, suggesting that more luxury investment is headed this way. “We’ll really get to see a new, refreshed face of Hong Kong starting in 2027.”

In the view of Victoria Tang-Owen, the Hong Kong-based co-founder and creative director of Victoria Tang Studio and Thirty30 creative, who has worked closely with Western figures, including Jones, advising on their creative collaborations in China, the city is finally getting its due. “There is immense value in remembering that Hong Kong’s identity is rooted in being makers — the legacy of the local factories and master tailors from back in the day is what built the city, making today’s ecosystem possible,” she says. Not only are more international brands looking to Hong Kong, but homegrown talents are also gaining global recognition, she adds.

International designers have plenty to gain from coming East. “When designers look to expand into Asia, it’s no longer just about fashion. They’re also partnering with brands at the forefront of technology and innovation,” says Lee. She recalls speaking with Jones when he was in Hong Kong last year and “how impressed he was by Bosideng’s advancements in fabrications.”

“I think we are way past the point of questioning Asia as a luxury market,” agrees Tang-Owen. “The designers who are committing to learning about the various Asian markets are the ones who are going to successfully navigate the next iteration of luxury consumption.”

Jones, in particular, may be uniquely placed to leverage Asia’s vast fashion market, worth over $730 billion and commanding over half the global market value, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. On the streets, from Hong Kong to Tokyo and beyond, young people are often casually dressed, pairing practical layering (to battle the humid weather) with statement sneakers — an aesthetic pioneered by Jones, who, during his time at major European luxury houses, moved away from the rigid, ultra-skinny silhouettes favored by designers like Hedi Slimane, and towards relaxed proportions that prioritized ease and movement.

Jones himself is a cult figure, with a vast fanbase that many designers would envy. That’s all the more timely in the current luxury landscape, where continual creative director changes and aggressive creative rebrands have made it hard for consumers to keep up. In Asia, particularly, his past collaborations — whether with BTS at Dior or Louis Vuitton’s historic partnership with Supreme during his tenure — have resonated profoundly with the region’s youth.

“Kim’s tenure at Louis Vuitton and Dior didn’t just set the blueprint for how Western luxury interacts with Eastern youth culture. His brand equity here is immense,” says Ho. “Given his recent activity and collaborations in the region, Hong Kong is uniquely primed for this debut.”