As glacial a pace as menswear travels, Kim Jones offered up a new and interesting way to push the menswear narrative forward. Tailoring is still at the center of Dior Men under the South African designer and he continued the stunning satin sashes he showed during FW19 into this season with new and interesting ways, as a built in sash on a suit or flowing and trailing behind the wearer with an ombre effect. The effect was quite lovely: elegant with equal masculinity and femininity, which, in effect, offered a new take on the unisex or genderless trend that's been toyed with a lot in fashion. Whether that was intentional or not doesn't matter, what does matter is that the net effect of those tailored looks are defining, something many designers are failing to do. What was less effective in this collection, though, were the throwbacks - as the youths say - to John Galliano's time at Dior with the newspaper prints that made cameos in this collection. While it's been quite some time since Galliano's anti-Semitic and Hitler-loving rant, it still seems too soon to be admiring his work.

Let's get the conveyor belt runway out of the way first: in lieu of walking down the "runway", Dior Men's Kim Jones opted to have his models stand, statue-like, as a conveyor belt carried them across the showspace, which surely many a people have done at the airport. But this is a fashion show so what did Jones offer up for this upcoming FW19 season? It was a mix of harder looks, like leather and animal prints - often together - which kicked off the first part of the collection while the latter half was softer and offered a more feminine approach to menswear with fabrics with a high sheen, adding a sensual vibe to the garments. Meanwhile, for accessories, Jones also looked to Dior's past by offering up bags like the iconic saddle bag but as a crossbody bag, as well as utilizing the monogram pattern on a mini duffle. The iridescent coats were a marvel if only for their technicalness while the tailored looks with elegantly draped extra-long shawls (or was they scarves?), that either stitched its way through the body and out the arm hole or tied to give a kimono-inspired jacket the finishing touch, were a true highlight.

Tokyo is the place to be or so it would seem as both Valentino and now Dior Men (please do remember the re-branding, it is no longer Dior Homme). For the Pre-Fall 2019 collection, Dior's Kim Jones looked to the future and the collection's host country for inspiration: there was a futuristic statue commissioned just for the show while cherry blossom motifs appeared on the runway, as well as on the garments themselves. This intra-season collection aimed to solidify Jones' vision for Dior Men: sporty and technical while embracing the codes of the house. The latter manifested itself in the final looks with luxuriously fabricated tailoring with more homage to Japan via a leather gi with tailored trousers. Elsewhere in the collection, technology placed a role from fake tattooed models aiming to resemble cyborgs to a futuristic looking DIOR-emblazoned sweater in a silvery fabric. There were other nods to the maison's history like using Dior's iconic trotter pattern on a bomber - sure to be a covetable item for men and women alike. In all, it was a solid collection from Jones, though it felt less personal than his prior collections at Louis Vuitton but maybe that was partly the point as we become more and more detached from one another even though we are more connected than ever before.