EXCLUSIVE: Behind the Scenes at Dior FW23 With J Balvin

J Balvin is a Fashion Week regular at this point, a front row staple at basically every runway show. Sometimes he even performs at them! Balvin’s so comfortable at these things that he took Highsnobiety backstage at Dior’s Fall/Winter 2023 presentation for some candids with creative director Kim Jones, just because he can.

Fall/Winter 2023 was quintessential Kim Jones Dior. It smacked of the Fall/Winter 2020 collection in terms of moody set and elegantly muted tailoring but Dior FW23 eschewed the house’s seasonal artistic collaborator to instead focus on itself.

There were ample references to the designs of Yves Saint Laurent, for instance, who took over Dior after founder Christian Dior died in 1957. You could see that in the clean lines and supple textiles, but you could also see progress in the contemporary touches. 3D-printed shoes, leopard-printed silk shirts, that sort of thing.

It’s all terribly J Balvin, isn’t it? The insouciant ease, the explosive accents?

Of course it is, hence why a rainbow-coiffed Balvin cozied up to Jones backstage, wearing a pair of shorts so wide that they may as well have been a skirt (another Dior’s FW23 motif).

The show itself was all about softness, despite the existential weight imparted by T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land — videos of actors Robert Pattinson and Gwendoline Christie reading the poem played in the background of the Dior FW23 runway while models showed off the new goods.

Plush, padded vests, bubbly knit sweaters, brushed cardigans, soft-shoulder wool suits, and fleece bombers offset the Dior show’s moody lighting and theme, while technical accents — pullcords at the elbows of blazers, puffy gilets, cargo-pocketed field jackets — reminds one that Jones is dressing his dudes to stylishly survive the apocalypse.

It’s survivalism gone luxe as weatherproof bucket hats, rain slickers, aran sweaters, and muddin’ boots are reimagined as exquisite statement pieces worth splurging on.

Delicate knits decorated with three-dimensional trees and repeated CD Diamond logos are some of the fancier stuff on display, though the earthy color palette (note the glistening green leather bags) is intended to literally ground the affair in line with the nature motifs mentioned by Eliot’s poem.

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J Balvin would wear it all, naturally, and you can likely expect to see plenty of Dior on him in coming months, styled in his typical joie-de-vivre way.