Yes, the association between the Los Angeles 1970s punk scene and the refined French maison might seem odd at first sight. However, there was a bit of punk in Monsieur Dior’s spirit: before becoming a couturier, he opened an art gallery with his friend Jacques Bonjean, where they exhibited the most avant-garde, anti-academic, pioneering artists of the time (Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, etc.). And rebelling against the established fashion norms, he gave women a slick silhouette again with corsets and the famous ‘new look’. Oh, and his love for leopard! A staple of wealthiness back then but that the punk movement appropriated together with other animal prints.

So it’s not that strange that Kim Jones wanted to give a touch of ‘punkiness’ to the collection he presented back in January this year. Raymond Pettibon seemed like a match made in heaven, and it was indeed. The American artist contributed to the collection with several artworks, for example, a close-up drawing of a pair of eyes in golden and brownish colours (a nod to Man Ray’s famous Glass Tears piece, perhaps?), which featured in the collection’s opening look as well as on a long-sleeve shirt, and that now is available too on cashmere jumpers (either in pale pink or in beige), a black denim jacket, and even a key ring.

Pettibon also contributed with more drawings, like a few reinterpretations of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which are printed or included on jumpers, shirts, a bomber jacket, a parka, a mesh t-shirt as well as on a key ring, a wallet and a bandana. But the king of them all is Pettibon’s reinterpretation of the leopard print, which Dior loved. Coming a variety of colours, from beige and black to black and white, it’s in a variety of clothes and accessories such as the B23 sneakers, the saddle bag, the roller messenger bag, sweaters, jackets, t-shirts and a scarf.