Creative director for Dior Men, Kim Jones has shown a flair for art world collaborations, teaming up with the likes of Raymond Pettibon, KAWS, Hajime Sorayama and Daniel Arsham to enrich his streetwear-meets-Savile Row collections and shows. Now, he has added a new name to his list of collaborations: Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo.
Modelled by an all-Black group of models in a short film uploaded to YouTube (the new standard now that the Coronavirus pandemic has ruled out the possibility of physical fashion shows for the time being), Jones’ latest designs masterfully marry Boafo’s motifs and sensibilities with his own.
Colour-blocked cummerbunds and pops of neon recall the bold backgrounds upon which the artist finger-paints his faces; a shirt embroidered with lengths of ivy has roots in a portrait Jones observed at the artist’s Accra studio; one of Baofo’s subjects looks out from a fur turtleneck.
The seed of the collaboration was planted last December. Jones, who was showing his pre-fall collection in Miami, was deeply struck by Boafo’s exhibition at the city’s newly opened Rubell Museum.
“(Boafo’s work) just spoke to me; I was immediately drawn to it. The intensity of his portraits, the power of movement and the choice of colours in them – everything touches me in his work and the way he sees things,” Jones said in a statement. “In designing this collection, I wanted to share that passion and celebrate the power of his work, to help it become even better known.”
But just as art has long played a role in Jones’ creative practice, Boafo has long harboured a love of fashion. “Fashion inspires my work and so I tend to look at characters that have that sense of style,” he explained from his studio in the film.
Working with a Black artist at a time when the fashion industry is increasingly being called out for systemic racism, could be seen as opportunistic. But for Jones, who moved between Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana and Ghana as a child with his hydro-geologist father, the connection was more personal.
“I wanted to work with an African artist for a long time because I grew up in Africa, and African art is something that’s always been important to me,” he explained in the video.
Given that it was created in such challenging times, Dior Men’s Spring collection feels controlled, serene. But it was emotional for Jones, coinciding with his father’s illness and eventual death. As soon as he can, he’ll take his dad “home” to Ghana. It will always be somewhere he escapes to. At his request, Dior will also ensure this particular collection leaves a lasting legacy by supporting Boafo’s newly created foundation for young artists in Accra.