Kim Jones
REVIEW
COMPLETE COLLECTION
PARIS, July 6, 2006
By
With athleticwear the season's biggest story, the stage was set for Kim Jones, whose design work for Umbro, among others, has put him in the forefront of the trend. But, true to his individualist nature, he went in a somewhat different direction. Then again, there has always been much more to Mr. Jones than sneakers and sweatpants (and not just because, as here, he sticks a platform sole on those sneakers and a cute kitten decal on the pants).After the show, the designer was too exhausted to gasp anything more than that he was inspired by the ingenuity of South African kids, making do with stuff they pick up in the street. That wasn't the whole story, though. Sure, the kitten and Loris monkey motifs were just the sort of thing you'd find on T-shirts at a market stall. But the notion of recycling was less obvious elsewhere (aside, that is, from the catwalk centerpieces of huge yetis made from drinking straws).
Jones collaborates on part of his collection with tailor Timothy Everest, and here that yielded pieces like a seersucker shirt-jacket. In his own right, he also paid close attention to fabric: Bike shorts came in cotton-cashmere, and a kicky little all-in-one was in herringbone. That has become Jones's signature. He twists athleticwear iconography into something intriguingly personal.
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