Every Single Look from The Dior Tears Capsule Collection
Dior’s Denim Tears capsule collection ingeniously combines American sartorial archetypes with French savoir-faire.
After ERL’s Eli Russell Linnetz and Shawn Stussy, Kim Jones brought in Tremaine Emory to create a capsule collection for Dior Men. The founder of the Denim Tears brand and the current creative head of Supreme collaborated with the fashion house on a capsule collection called Dior Tears, which was shown in Cairo, Egypt, before the Dior Men Pre-Fall 2023 show. The collection showcased an array of ready-to-wear and accessories like hats, scarves, handbags and more, demonstrating once again the pervasiveness of streetwear in the high fashion industry.
“I want to share that moment in time, that beautiful moment in time where black writers and musicians and artists were coming from America, running from America, and finding some level of acceptance in certain European cities and being able to have their art respected and who they are respected,” Emory expressed in the show notes. “It wasn’t perfect but it was just a moment, a beautiful moment for blacks to have the privilege and opportunity to escape from the terror, the horrors of America, a segregated Jim Crow America. Artists like Miles Davis and writers like James Baldwin found refuge in Paris.”
Emory, a designer revered by his long-time friend Kim Jones, combines an American archetypal concept with French high fashion. The collection is a trip from New York to Paris by way of New Orleans, and it draws inspiration from jazz musicians and Black Ivy League students of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, workwear is referenced alongside the parallel civil rights movement of the same era. Traditional American workwear like plaid button-downs, varsity jackets and chinos are paired with sartorially elegant overcoats, tailored suiting and refined leather accessories like the trumpet bag to create a style that is equal parts preppy and pretty.
While denim remains a staple throughout the Dior Tears collection, a variety of design elements are included to add interesting twists to the fabric. Scarves, sweaters and long-sleeved T-shirts share a common trait: colourful stripes. The logo is also prominently displayed on various products, such as vibrant shirts and trousers with fur trim. Mixing tailored garments with more casual pieces, the collection is highlighted by crochet bucket hats and a flowery peace sign update to Dior’s iconic Oblique motif. The motif is carried over to the footwear collection which includes mules and trainers with matching socks.
“In many ways, the collection is a microcosm of Denim Tears and the world it occupies. Emory's collections deal directly with the African diaspora, particularly the diaspora experience in the United States. Adding to this conversation, Dior Tears also incorporates a dialogue with France. Here, the signs, symbols and motifs such as the cotton flower and the necklace, as well as the general narrative of this collection,” the press release stated. “The journey of jazz, with its roots in Africa, is a complex one that changed the world. It is fitting then that the collection is displayed in Egypt, on the site of one of the cradles of the civilisation that changed the world. It is presented in the form of a tableau vivant, surrounded by the antiquities of one of the greatest civilisations of all in The Grand Egyptian Museum,” it concluded.
Swipe through the gallery below to check out the full collection:
