Louis Vuitton held a show during Paris Men’s Fashion Week. The show was in memory of Virgil Abloh, the former creative director of the menswear line, who died at the end of 2021 due to cancer. No word yet on who will take his place, with media and fashion experts citing Martin Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Gerry Lorenzo, among others. As they say, the spring-summer 2023 collection will be the last to be created by Virgil’s team based on his ideas and designs. And then the company management will have to appoint a successor.
The set this time was built in the image of a playground with incomprehensible constructions and in bright colours. The show was opened with a performance by the University of Florida Tallahassee Orchestra. The institution was covered by the Post-Modern scholarship programme, which Ablo founded to support black creative students. Also during the show, Kendrick Lamar sang without getting up from his front row bench, and at the end, while the models carried a rainbow flag down the catwalk, a reference to Ablo’s debut show for Lous Vuitton Menswear in Paris, which took place at Men’s Fashion Week four years ago, he sang: “Long live Virgil”.
The runway showcased everything the designer has given to Louis Vuitton in his three years of experience: men’s pleated skirts, floor-length down jackets, flower-embroidered coats and vibrant leather jackets. Ablo’s “childish” ideas also found their place – coloured hats with coloured dice ties, paper aeroplanes on tight suits, colourful suitcases and backpacks with loudspeakers.
This time Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Naomi Campbell, French actor Omar Sy, rapper J Balvin, Kendrick Lamar and other celebs and Influencers came to see the collection.
