Eyes Over Egypt: Dior Unveils its Pre-Fall Men 2023

With the great pyramids of Giza as a backdrop, Artistic Director Kim Jones brings Dior into the future on the 75th anniversary of the house.

Dior’s Creative director, Kim Jones, decided to break away from the unwritten rules of fashion and make us travel in space and time. The city of Cairo and the pyramids of Giza were chosen to bring the past to the present with the fall 2023 Menswear fashion show. A recurring inspiration for the house, the collection was guided by Christian Dior’s belief in astrology, incorporating the house’s legacy into this futuristic collection.

“My interest in Ancient Egypt is about the stars and the sky,” Jones said. “It’s that fascination with the ancient world and the parallels with what we see today; What we inherited from them and what we’re still learning from the past,” he added. “It ties in with Christian Dior in that sense and because of his fascination with symbols and superstitions that recur throughout his life and work, one of which is the star.” Regarding how antiquity informs the present and vice versa, Jones presented a menswear collection that transcended time in its design and grandeur.

Guests at the Dior runway show were immediately immersed in a captivating atmosphere of billowing smoke, pools of light and cascading silhouettes. The futuristic mood was something akin to the uncompromising sand landscapes of Frank Herbert’s Dune. “I’ve always loved Dune, which was the first science fiction landmark. And we’ve worked with NASA on some of the more technical prints,” Jones explains.

Elegant and pragmatic, the new collection is all about practicality and comfort. Taking a page from the mind of Christian Dior, the ensembles call fashion lovers to Dior’s legacy while pushing the house into the future.

The collection kicked off with a gradation of greys that unfolded and evolved. With a leap, the collection’s silhouettes cascaded and billowed behind the models as they strolled down the runway. Dior’s signature couture finishes were given technical embellishments, while the collection’s archival embroidery was transformed into futuristic armour.

It followed a grey colour palette that clashed with the colours of the desert. The transitional looks aimed to toast both day and night, with subtle inspiration drawn from the label’s archive and its current men’s atelier lines.

Through a particular emphasis on pattern cutting, the brand said the collection sought to fuse the feminine and masculine, using tailoring and couture finishes to achieve a range of outerwear.

Archival embroidery was modernized, while Dior leather goods also took the stage in the brand’s attempt to “reinterpret luxury in a new organic utility.”

In terms of prints, the most present have been the CD Diamond and a galaxy print that we saw incorporated into raincoats and windbreakers. A reference to the ancient Egyptians’ belief that the Gods were in the stars and that the higher the pyramid, the closer the buried pharaohs would be to them.

To complete the looks, Dior incorporated explorer hats with a veil of mosquito netting over the top, and sporty sunglasses, which matched the gorpcore style and the techno music in the background. Some models also wore biker gloves, while others wore modern helmets under their arms.

Finally, the shoes chosen for this collection were not sneakers as in past collections. Military boots and thick boots of futuristic aesthetics finish transporting us from the pharaonic past in which the show was set to the contemporary aesthetics of the collection. Undoubtedly, a show for history books.

The event featured a number of notable figures supporting the fashion house on the front row of the show, including Lewis Hamilton, Naomi Campbell and South Korean rapper Oh Seh-un.