Every celebrity on the planet seemed to be at Art Basel Miami Beach this year when Dior kicked off the annual art fair with a men’s fashion show on Tuesday night, and the front row was more star-studded than most fashion weeks. Polo Lifestyles’ publisher was among the front row crowd.
Where else are you going to find Bella Hadid and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones in the same room? Or the Canadian country musician Orville Peck, who keeps his face covered like Sia, chatting with the Columbian singer Maluma, who apparently recognized the man behind the fringe logo mask? Every country, creed, and reality television show was represented, from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Keeping Up With the Kardashians. There were so many celebrities in the room, even Ricky Martin, king of Miami, felt the need to introduce himself to press. “I’m Ricky,” we overheard him say after politely declining an interview. To which the reporter replied, “I know.”
The Dior pre-fall 2020 show took place at the brand-new Rubell Museum, a 100,000-square-foot former warehouse space in the newly gentrifying neighborhood of Allapattah. Dior designer Kim Jones has taken the brand on the road since he left Louis Vuitton 18 months ago. Last year, his pre-fall show took place in Tokyo. But Miami is a first for the designer, who orchestrated his own unlikely all-star mashup for the occasion, inviting streetwear designer Shawn Stussy to come out of retirement and collaborate on the collection. He also unveiled a new Dior x Air Jordan 1 sneaker, which had hypebeasts debating its merits even before the show began.
Jones is perhaps best known for bringing Supreme into the fold at Louis Vuitton. Since then, he’s worked with artists like KAWS, Daniel Arsham, and Raymond Pettibon at Dior. Stussy, which was founded in the 1980s as a surf/skate brand, is a quieter name in comparison, but is still known as one of the streetwear originals. Jones said he started buying Stussy at the age of 14 with money he saved up from a job washing dishes at a café. He also remembers copying Stussy’s logo in his school notebooks. Now, Dior is written in the same font.
On the whole, the collection was a reflection of Miami’s vibrant, over-the-top style, with python short shorts, printed bucket hats, and slide sandals. There was something in it for everyone, from the actual skaters in the crowd to, yes, even Ricky Martin.