The K-chaos continued at Friday’s Dior show, with newly crowned global ambassador Park Jimin drawing thousands to Paris’ Place de Concorde ahead of Kim Jones’ latest collection.
The Korean pop star was joined by his BTS bandmate J-Hope, who also attended the Louis Vuitton show Thursday, keeping it all in the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton family.
It made for the most electric front row of the week, with Jimin and J-Hope seated between Naomi Campbell and J Balvin, just seats down from Eddie Redmayne and Robert Pattinson.
J-Hope chatted with LVMH scion and Tag Heuer chief executive officer Frédéric Arnault through an interpreter. He said he tried to catch up on sleep after Thursday’s Vuitton show.
Despite the madness outside, Balvin felt that the vibe of the shows this season is “more chill than it used to be.” He has become a regular at Paris Fashion Week, and took in the Vuitton and Givenchy shows earlier in the week.
He chatted with Jimin and J-Hope at their seats, and proclaimed himself a fan of BTS. Asked if there could ever be a collaboration with the group or solo members, he was up for the idea. “I met them before and I mean they’re great. I would love to, why not?”
“They’re doing it amazing. I see how their mood is going up,” Balvin said of the group’s popularity. “They’re singing in Korean; I’m Latino and I’m singing in Spanish. It’s all about having a global reach. I mean, you gotta get to know a little bit about the culture and the sound but I think it’s great. People are connecting with their music, which means they are doing the right thing.”
Fellow face of Dior Pattinson seem unbothered by the commotion and chatted with Redmayne about upcoming travel plans. Redmayne, clad in a classic suit, complemented Pattinson’s kilt. “A little extra ventilation,” he joked.
Pattinson appeared on screen to perform T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” with Gwendoline Christie, while models walked to a meditative mix of their words and music.
“Kim is someone that I’ve known for a really long time and we have a shared history that means an awful lot to me,” Christie said. “Kim demonstrated what he’s always so good at, which is being able to see in people what other people can’t necessarily see, and make connections in a different way. It meant a huge amount to me to actually be brought together with this text, which I’ve never performed before, and to work with Robert Pattinson, who’s one of my favorite actors.”
“It’s very overwhelming actually and emotional, and I loved the process of working on it,” she added.
“The White Lotus” star Adam DiMarco reflected on how much his life has changed in the past year. He set out to film the cult hit on location in Italy last February.
“This is all new to me, it’s a really foreign world and I’m just curious, trying to be a sponge and learn as much as I can. My brain is taking a while to catch up with my body. It’s very surreal everything that has been happening,” he said of his sudden fame.
DiMarco promised not to take any sartorial tips from his character. “He wasn’t particularly well dressed, so I think I learned what not to do,” he said. Sporting a velvet track suit, DiMarco said he had no idea if he would get to keep the loaned duds. “It’s really comfortable — I hope so,” he said.
K-pop has dominated fashion week, with fans turning up for J-Hope at the Vuitton show at the Louvre, and Big Bang’s Taeyang at Givenchy. It follows the mobs that stood outside the Prada show in Milan for BTS’ labelmate Enhypen last week as K-culture continues to make its mark on the fashion world.
– With contributions from Joelle Diderich
