Kim Jones To Receive French Legion Of Honour Award

Dior Men’s Artistic Director Kim Jones will be presenting the Fall 2025 menswear collection at Paris Fashion Week. After the show, Kim Jones will be made chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur at an award ceremony. The Légion d’Honneur is France’s highest civilian decoration and can be given to non-French citizens for actions that benefit the country.

The British designer Kim Jones is to receive France’s highest civilian decoration, Légion d’Honneur, in a ceremony after his fall 2025 menswear show for Dior, today.

Kim Jones will receive the award from Anna Wintour, chief content officer of Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue. “This prestigious recognition honors the talent, passion and commitment of the artistic director of Dior men’s lines,” Dior said in a statement. 

Speaking ahead of his show, Kim Jones told WWD, “I was shocked, actually. When I got the letter, I cried. It’s very nice, because it’s celebrating your work and achievements. It’s something you never even think you’ll get. I don’t think many foreign people get them and I think it’s a real compliment.”

The British designer was previously appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List in 2020 for services to fashion.

The legacy of Kim Jones

Kim Jones attended London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design where he graduated with an MA in Menswear. His graduation show was a hit, which inspired him to launch his eponymous label and the debut collection was presented at London Fashion week in 2003. Following a collaboration as designer for British high street sportswear brand Umbro, Jones designed for Topman, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Alfred Dunhill and a few others.

Kim Jones built a stellar reputation as one of the leading menswear designers during his tenure as Creative Director at Louis Vuitton from 2011 to 2018, before joining Dior Homme as Artistic Director of Dior for the Men’s Ready-to-Wear and Accessory. His first collection was presented in June 2018, during Paris Men’s fashion week. Jones added Artistic Director of haute couture, ready to wear and fur collections for women at Fendi to his roster in 2020 and was, in fact, the first to step into the shoes filled by Karl Lagerfeld from 1965 until his passing in 2019.

Despite his inexperience with womenswear, Kim Jones’ tenure at Fendi was successful. Per the coverage of Fendi Spring Summer 2025 on WWD: ‘“I looked at all the different family members of a few Fendi generations, and have done different versions of each one,” he said, pointing to looks created with Adele, Anna, Silvia Venturini Fendi and Delfina Delletrez Fendi… While these were relatively quiet clothes, often simple in cut and restrained in embellishment, they impressed with their delicacy, finesse, and a luxury feeling, perhaps exemplified by a simple T-shirt dress in sueded crocodile that rippled like velvet as the models strolled the perimeter of the vast, square show set…’

Kim Jones experienced key milestones at Fendi. Per WWD: ‘Donatella Versace designed a Fendi collection and Jones a Versace lineup for pre-fall 2022 retailing… In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a collection within Fendi’s spring 2023 women’s collection that was shown during New York Fashion Week, and also teamed with Tiffany and Co. for special Baguette handbags. He followed up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration under the new “Friends of Fendi” banner.’

At the time, LMVH released a statement: “Kim Jones made significant contributions to the brand’s creative legacy, seamlessly integrating his modern and cross-cultural aesthetics with Fendi’s historical heritage. Under his leadership, the maison reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, offering an inclusive and innovative approach to fashion that constantly renewed Fendi’s Italian codes. Throughout his four years, Jones’ work was wholly guided by passion and creativity.” Today, he continues evolving his aesthetic as Artistic Director of Dior for the Men’s Ready-to-Wear and Accessory collections.