Dior Men’s Kim Jones: “I was going to be a zoologist before becoming a designer”
Kim Jones has wild animals on his mind. "Even though Singapore is a big city, there's a lot of wild fauna. People still talk nigh big pythons turning upwards in homes, in that location'southward most 100 pangolins left in Singapore and at that place is a rare kind of langur that lives here," said Jones during an interview with CNA Luxury while he was on a one-night stopover at the newly refurbished Raffles Hotel.
The global artistic manager of Dior Men had just completed the Tiger Limited trip by Belmond's Eastern & Oriental Express train from Bangkok to Singapore as an ambassador for the global charity initiative Relieve Wild Tigers. For his cyclone 24 hours in the piffling red dot, he had plans to pack his itinerary with as much animal-spotting as possible.
"I'm going to the Singapore Zoo – I call up they treat their animals very well and [the zoo's programmes are] of import for the breeding of certain species. And so we're going to try to run into the family of otters that live down by the river which are very popular, because information technology'due south actually nice to come across animals in the wild," he said.
While he has garnered global acclamation as the visionary designer who has breathed new life into menswear past melding luxury with street fashion – during his tenure equally men's artistic director at Louis Vuitton, he spearheaded the brand's blockbuster collaboration with Supreme – in that location is a bottom known soft side to him.
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"I really do a lot of wild animals travelling and conservation work. I don't really talk about information technology a lot, but this is something actually important," he said.
He attributes his analogousness for animals to his childhood, which was spent in Ecuador and many parts of Africa including Republic of botswana, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, considering of his father'southward piece of work as a hydrogeologist. "You had all these massive animals around – leopards, cheetahs, lions, elephants, rhinos, giraffes – so I've ever been interested in wildlife. I was going to be a zoologist before condign a designer."
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When Jones was approached by Simon Clinton, founder of Save Wild Tigers, to take a trip through historic tiger territories in Thailand and Malaysia to help enhance awareness for the plight of tigers, who number just 3,800 in the wild, he jumped on lath. As role of the entrada, British Chinese artist Jacky Tsai, who created Alexander McQueen's famous floral skull motif, painted the external livery of two of the train's carriages with a tiger-inspired design.
"The Malayan tiger is incredibly rare; the Chinese one, there's probably xx or so left in the globe; and they went extinct recently in Cambodia. What's great about this campaign is that the artwork on the exterior of the railroad train allows people to think about the tiger a bit more than," said Jones, who saw his first tiger in the wild in Ranthambore, Bharat, just in 2014.
Profits from this entrada – £30,000 (S$51,600) was raised from the sale of a painting past Tsai – will go towards creating global awareness campaigns for the cause and funding targeted tiger conservation projects. Jones added, "Every bit with any kind of adept conservation, the programme aims to aid people in the community live a better quality of life and also protect the ecosystem that they live in."
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The iii-night journeying on board the luxury train also immune Jones the rare opportunity to savor a less hectic footstep of travel. He said, "It was a existent joy to be there. I spent most of my time daydreaming, looking out the window and seeing everything as we went along. And it's amazing, you know, but crossing the border from Thailand to Malaysia and Singapore and seeing the differences even though they are right adjacent to each other."
Enjoying life in the dull, natural lane is something this prolific globetrotter gravitates towards whenever he can spare the time. "When I relax, it is to get to nature where I'chiliad with people that I am close with and nosotros're on our own, only having a very prissy time experiencing cute things like seeing amazing animals in the wild or a natural spot," he said.
Where he lays his head matters likewise. He prefers destinations that focus on eco-tourism, such every bit the Singita luxury safari lodges in Africa.
"I am a big Aman junkie, which I think everyone knows," he said with a express joy. On his Instagram business relationship @mrkimjones, which he personally manages, there are multiple posts nearly his stays at Aman resorts around the world.
"I love them because they take a real balance between nature and luxury," he said, list Amanjiwo in Coffee; Amangiri and Amangani in the United states; and Aman-i-Khas in Republic of india where he saw his first tiger amid his favourites. "Each i is a completely different experience only what'due south really good about it is the consistency of service is infrequent and you know everything you need is in that location."
So, what's next on this frequent flyer's bucket listing?
He said, "I'd love to go to Papua New Republic of guinea or northern Australia considering of the marsupials and the saltwater crocodiles and all the animals that you don't remember about that live in those places. And the birds of paradise."
Editor'due south note: To our knowledge, Dior has no official no-fur stance.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/kim-jones-246011
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