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attention to detail, people appreciate that in our work, and that’s why they buy a lot of it! I always think in terms of past, present and future, and I think what these things we do now will be in the future, for instance in an exhibition of Dior. We ask: What are these things now and where do they come from in the past? We look at the archive first, then we look at the present, and then we think about what there is going to be in the future. How do you imagine the world of tomorrow? If you think of what people thought of this world in 1960, it hasn’t changed so much. I’m not doing a Paco Rabanne space age modernist thing. I do real clothes. We just style them and make them look cool. What is the most difficult thing to do? Is it the jacket, the trousers, or the shirt? Menswear is very strict. You have rules to it. There are only certain things you can do with pieces of clothing. We can style it and make it look cool, but when you break it down, you or I could both go into a store and we’d both like the same coat, for example, because it’s a really beautifully designed coat in a really nice fabrication. That’s the number one rule for me. It has to have an appeal to all men. Is Dior Men based in London? No, it’s in Paris, and I’m there once a month, but my studio is in London, by Selfridges. Kim Jones Studio is a separate company that works for different companies. How many people work with you? About 20, creative people. Most of them I’ve known for a long, long time. What is your own role? Sketching and the preparation of the research. I like to have different designers who know my taste and what I want. We have a very fluid dialogue because we worked together for so long. For instance, Lucy has been with me for sixteen years, and so if I say something, she naturally knows what I am interested in. They are my second family. There’s an instinct that we all know. Do your clothes sell so well because you have an instinct for what people want? I listen to a lot of information. I read things. I look at things. I love to see people in the street, that’s why I like to walk. I’ll just pick up one little detail on something and I’ll think about it all day, and then I’ll go and put it in something. It is instinctive. I don’t know how it is. If I did, I’d teach people and make lots of money teaching them. At Dior do you dress the older or the younger man? Every single kind of man. I’m always surprised when I see what I think a young person is going to buy and then I see a man that’s about 50 buying it; and he looks good in it. But generally it’s a very consistent overview of people that buy it. And are you a happy man who did what you wanted to do? Yes. I have bosses, and I listen to what is wanted, but I do what I think is right – and it works. I’m very left alone in the sense of doing what I want to do, because they respect me and I respect them and I work for them, and I know that my job is to sell stuff, to do my job properly and to conduct myself properly. And that’s what I do. I’m always working, but if you love your work, it’s easy.