PARIS — Yet another high-profile design vacancy opened Friday when Fendi revealed that Kim Jones would step down after four eventful years as artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women.
He will “now concentrate fully on his role of artistic director at Dior Men’s,” the Roman house said in a brief statement issued late Friday.
The development comes amid fevered — and often spurious — speculation about the vast game of musical chairs playing out at the highest echelons of European fashion.
There was no mention of the succession plan, only that “a new creative organization for Fendi” would be announced “in due time.”
According to market sources, Fendi has recently held discussions with designers including Pierpaolo Piccioli, previously creative director of Valentino.
In Friday’s statement, the focus was on Jones’ tenure, which brought collaborations and destination shows into the mix.
The finale of the Fendi spring 2024 haute couture show in Paris.
Courtesy of Fendi
“Kim Jones made significant contributions to the brand’s creative legacy, seamlessly integrating his modern and cross-cultural aesthetics with Fendi’s historical heritage,” it said. “Under his leadership, the maison reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, offering an inclusive and innovative approach to fashion that constantly renewed Fendi’s Italian codes. Throughout his four years, Jones’ work was wholly guided by passion and creativity.”
Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, lauded Jones as “a highly talented designer who has brought his unique and multicultural vision to Fendi over the past four years. I would like to thank him for his contribution and look forward to continuing to witness his creativity for Dior Men’s.”
Jones was one of the rare designers to straddle two luxury brands in two countries.
Still, his exit from Fendi adds to the creative upheaval roiling the industry, currently grappling with a slowdown in luxury consumption and consumer caution.
As reported, the employment contracts of John Galliano at Maison Margiela, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, and Lucie and Luke Meier at Jil Sander are coming to term before the end of the year or in early 2025, according to market sources. There are also creative vacancies at Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Jean Paul Gaultier.
During his tenure at Fendi, Jones frequently referenced ready-to-wear designed by Karl Lagerfeld, who had famously created furs and women’s rtw for the Roman house from 1965 until his death in 2019.
Jones also collaborated closely with Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear collections, and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi, jewelry creative director, whom he considered a key muse.
Over the past year he spoke enthusiastically about preparations for Fendi’s centenary in 2025, while stopping short of detailing specific plans.
When he joined Fendi, Jones became the latest acclaimed menswear specialist to broaden his fashion universe to womenswear, following on the heels of Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons.
For his first crack at Fendi, he took a client-focused approach centered on real clothes and the lifestyle needs of his close circle of female friends, which includes the likes of Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Ronnie Cooke Newhouse and Victoria Beckham.
He told WWD in an interview ahead of his Fendi rtw debut in February 2021 that he simply wanted to make “clothes that women will want to buy. I’m not gonna lie — I think that’s what my job is. I want all my friends to go, ‘I want that straight away.’”
Fendi, fall 2021
He took pride in commercial success, and frequently boasted that Fendi revenues grew during his tenure to surpass 2 billion euros.
His collections received mostly positive, though hardly ecstatic, reviews, and it is understood some LVMH insiders looked dimly on some of his projects at Fendi.
In September 2021, he surprised the fashion world by pioneering a full creative swap: Donatella Versace designed a Fendi collection and Jones a Versace lineup for pre-fall 2022 retailing. They were known collectively as the Fendace collections and were sold at pop-ups across the globe, in addition to the Versace and Fendi websites and boutiques.
An image from the Fendace Fendi by Versace campaign.
Courtesy of Fendace
In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a collection within Fendi’s spring 2023 women’s collection that was shown during New York Fashion Week, and also teamed with Tiffany & Co. for special Baguette handbags. He followed up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration under the new “Friends of Fendi” banner.
Jones also endured some management turmoil during his four-year stint.
Last May, Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou was appointed CEO of the Italian luxury company, which he took on in addition to his role as managing director of LVMH Fashion Group.
He succeeded Serge Brunschwig, who served for six years as chairman and CEO of Fendi, building the brand’s retail network, investing in its industrial infrastructure, and forging a joint venture with Design Holding, forming Fashion Furniture Design (FF Design) to develop the Fendi Casa business.
A veteran of LVMH, Jones came on board in 2011 as men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton, parlaying his zest for exotic travel into ultra-luxurious collections with understated cool and sly functionality. He helped ignite the luxury streetwear phenomenon with the landmark 2017 collaboration with Supreme, the cult New York skatewear brand.
Since joining the men’s division of Dior in 2018, Jones has stepped up the pace of collaborations, mostly with fine artists including Daniel Arsham, Kaws and Amoako Boafo, but also the surfwear maven Shawn Stussy, and the Jordan brand. The latter yielded one of the most sought-after sneakers of 2020, the Air Jordan 1 OG Dior limited-edition.
Jones has had a storied fashion career, with Galliano snapping up his graduate collection from Central Saint Martins.
He initially launched a signature menswear label. Known for its sporty, streetwear edge, the Kim Jones brand lasted for eight seasons and attracted the attention of Dunhill, where he was creative director from 2008 to 2011.