Dry your eyes, baby, because a Dior Tears pop-up is landing in London.
First unveiled during an event at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo on December 2 – ahead of the House’s monumental PF23 menswear show which took place beneath the Great Pyramids – Dior Tears is the product of a creative dialogue between Dior Men’s artistic director, Kim Jones, and Tremaine Emory, Denim Tears founder and Supreme creative director. Citing Black Ivy League students of the fifties and sixties and Black creatives from the same period, like James Baldwin and insouciant jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, as inspiration for the team-up, it was a preppy-cum-cool range characterised by high-low combinations of French craftsmanship and American staples. Imagine tailored wool overcoats slung over slouchy cashmere joggers and suits engineered in lightweight technical fabrics borrowed from workwear.
Now, the two brands are celebrating the release of the street-luxury crossover collection with four global pop-ups. From tomorrow to July 13, the London location at Phonica Records is the first and only, pop-up across Europe to host the collab, so don’t sleep on it ‘cause it’s only in town for six all-too-short days. After it shuts though, a trio of temporary stores are set to materialize across Asia: Dior Tears will be in Tokyo from July 11 to 30, Seoul from July 13 to 22, and Shanghai from July 15 to 25. Summer getaway, anyone?
Photography by Alex Upton
The destinations promise to be “an immersive, multisensory experience,” according to a release, with each boutique featuring colossal, inflatable installations within their interiors. “Visible from the surrounding streets, their organic shapes reveal an inhabited, alternative universe, where sounds, shadows and lights are perceived differently – as if filtered – conveying an entrancing, poetic atmosphere,” it said. In Seoul and Shanghai, customers will even be able to physically enter the bubbles, but to the dismay of us Londoner’s, the UK version is more of an impressive art piece than an interactive plaything.
Beyond that though, the shops will host musical sessions for you to jam out to and project alluring videos designed by the studio of Japanese floral artist Azuma Makoto.
Tomorrow, the street-luxury crossover will christen its London pop-up with a cocktail event in the presence of the man, the myth, the legend himself: Kim Jones. Emory, sadly, will be missed.
Photography courtesy of Dior. The Dior Tears pop-up in London will be open from July 8 to 13 at Phonica Records, Soho, London.
