In Egypt, the Dior Cinematic Universe reset the fashion blockbuster

There was also a little superstition to the sci-fi. Knits in bangs of colours were souped up with the bread-and-butter of the superstitious: the Illuminati pyramid was ablaze in one graphic; constellations of the Zodiac in another.

Under the stars and before the silent wonder of the pyramids, it all felt a little mystical. That’s kinda the point. As both a Fall collection premiere and a birthday party for Dior’s 75th, Jones wants the celebration to be spiritual, to focus on the cosmos – much like the Ancient Egyptians, who built the show’s breathtaking backdrop to reflect the star path of Orion’s Belt above. “With this anniversary and the collections’ we’ve done that are all entwined and building to a conclusion, it felt appropriate to do something very special at the end of the year,” Jones told GQ ahead of the show. “It is the summing up of past, present and future in a place – in front of the Great Pyramid.”

As per the show notes, Monsieur Dior himself was a superstitious man, and found his own ‘lucky star’ by tripping over a trinket on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Some would have found little meaning in it. But Dior saw more than meaning: there was a message, a premonition that his destiny was in haute couture, and he was famously known for using his astrological faith to guide the house. 

This is not the Jones administration’s first space programme. During lockdown, Dior launched its Fall 2021 collection into the outer galaxy. Dreamt up in partnership with Kenny Scharf, the hi-graphic East Village artist that helped drive the creative rebrand of his New York neighbourhood, the collection saw very Dior tailoring splashed with intergalactic illustrations. Further back, there was a show in Tokyo with the king of retrofuture erotica Hajime Sorayama, complete with metallic saddle bags and a giant robot centrepiece. It even fired lasers out of its face.

Remember all of that, and the accessories of this evening’s show come as little surprise. They were pod-like, and aerodynamic; rucksacks in identical shades of grey like portable android tortoise shells. The belt bag – a real money maker of the Dior brand – was repurposed as a muff, a pair of models’ hands wedged into each side of a bag with more than enough zippered compartments.

This sort of futurist take on the Dior doctrine comes naturally to Jones. Because his Dior is of neo-couture, where historical cuts see a forward-thinking redesign, like the wool demi-kilt, a descendant of a ‘Bonne Fortune’ Dior bias pleated dress from the ‘50s. It was everywhere in the collection. And this nebulous space in-between past and future is where Jones seems to feel most comfortable. He’s both a historian and a forecaster.