Reviving the voluptuously nipped-and-tucked waists of the New Look, Monsieur Dior’s stylish call for opulence in post-war Paris, this season saw creative director Kim Jones reckoning with the house’s agenda-setting past for Dior’s 75th anniversary year. “I wanted to look at the archive, at the purity of the beginnings of the house, at its original impulse,” he said of his sculpted, pastel formalwear and decadent silk muffs. 

“We looked at the initial collections and focused on the architecture” – see Jones’ trenches in severe cuts – “taking these elements and transforming them almost instinctively in a masculine way for today, always keeping the joie de vivre at the heart of Christian Dior’s clothing.”

With the aforementioned exuberance of the house still well intact, the collection thrived on couture flourishes and fleeting glimpses of tech-laden sportswear. Sporting Birkenstocks embroidered with motifs from Christian Dior’s childhood garden and outerwear in oceanic cheetah prints, Jones lead 1947 into 2022 on meticulously beaded bomber’s and reworked Doris beret’s devised by British milliner Stephen Jones – the label’s resident hat-maker-in-chief for nearly 25 years.

Whether Jones is bridging the gap of tasteful formality with bejewelled loafers, or bringing a utilitarian sensibility to the tailors of Savile Row in slouchy beige cargo pants, his channel-hopping FW22 collection ultimately served as a promise to keep the pretty and playful at the heart of Dior menswear – forever and always.