The Formula 1 star turns Moroccan and Senegalese memories into leopard tweed for a July 3 Dior landing.
Lewis Hamilton stands at the start line of a very different track. The Formula 1 champion, who is also a producer of Apple’s upcoming “F1” movie, channels Afrofuturism in his latest capsule collection for Dior—shaped by months of travel and close conversation with the maison’s ateliers, weaving speculative futures into the house archive.
Announced last summer and introduced visually in an October 2024 campaign, the partnership has given Hamilton room to translate racing intensity into fabric. For this second drop, he looked well beyond the paddock. After journeys through Morocco, Senegal, Mozambique, Benin and Madagascar, he said, “I heard so many incredible stories that inspired me to imagine the future of Black culture. The way we tell stories through art, science and philosophy is really special. Seeing these ideas brought to life through color and movement inspired me.”
Dior echoed that sentiment, calling the capsule “reflecting once more an alternative side to his sporting life and revealing something more personal.” The house added, “This capsule celebrates performance, excellence and innovation, while demonstrating virtuoso accomplishments in terms of sustainability. Hamilton has engaged in a dialogue with the Dior ateliers to summon a unique collection by striking the right balance between the power and energy of motorsports and the exceptional finesse of French and international savoir-faire.”
That dialogue materialises first in a leopard-print tweed cut into relaxed shorts, a camp-collar shirt, a hooded jacket and a bouson. The pattern, described by Dior as the point “where afrofuturism and Dior historicism ultimately meet,” sets the tone for roomy tailoring finished with workwear boots and a bucket hat—pieces built for movement yet insistent on ceremony.
Hamilton, named a co-chair of the next Met Gala, frames style as personal testimony. “self-expression and embracing all the different parts of yourself. Being authentic to your style and communicating yourself through clothing is such a powerful feeling,” he said. “That’s what this collection embraces — an exploration of identity, versatility and expression.”
The pieces land in Dior boutiques on July 3, a midsummer arrival inviting fans of the maison, motorsport and Afrofuturism to read a new horizon in tweed.
