Kim Jones' new hipsters in Dior Men's Pre-Fall 2022 show The brand's latest collection was inspired by Kerouac and the Beat Generation

«Kids are into print now», said Kim Jones to WWD after his latest show for Dior Men in London. «Lots of kids are getting bored of digital and they want to see things in real life, they want to see what the next page is — not just what they Google». Words that are emblematic of a collection that not only celebrates the printed paper in its own setting (a gigantic reproduction of the manuscript of On the Road by Kerouac) but that also tells a subculture that fashion has not frequented for some years: the Beat Generation. Just the link to the 50s style of the Beat Generation, as well as the unusual in-depth study dedicated to a bibliological collection of first editions of On the Road owned by Kim Jones have placed emphasis on the analog medium recalling another very recent subculture, extinct just before the boom of streetwear promoted by Jones himself with Louis Vuitton x Supreme, who are the hipsters. 

This return of hipster aesthetics, like the return of the analog that Jones was talking about in relation to the world of print but which Balenciaga also dealt with with the polaroids and VHS of his latest show FW22, speak of a growing polarization that is arising in culture: an increasingly concrete and nostalgic response to the tangible past in an era where art and reality become increasingly digitized.