VOGUEHOMMANIA

OTHONIEL, ART AND DIOR

Elected to the Académie des Beaux–Arts in 2018, Jean–Michel Othoniel will soon be ready to take possession of seat number 5 (left vacant by Eugène Dodeigne): Kim Jones for has designed his Académicien’s uniform. There are strict specifications: a black tailcoat and trousers (collectively referred to as an habit vert since codification in 1801), embroidered with green olive branches along the legs, around the cuffs and on the lapels and front of the coat. For Jean–Michel Othoniel’s uniform, the Dior atelier hand–painted the branches directly onto the fabric, which they then embroidered with metal, silk and cotton thread before adding embellishments of glass pearls: the sculptor’s hallmark. This was a first for Dior — it’s not every day you get to dress an Immortal (the name given to the Académie’s members) — though not its first collaboration with the sculptor, who in 2013 designed a special–edition bottle for J’adore. In fact, Parfums Christian Dior is the patron of Othoniel’s show, at the Petit Palais until the