LOUIS VUITTON UNLEASHES THE JOY OF CHILDHOOD WITH ITS LATEST MENSWEAR RUNWAY
Photo Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
27 jun 2022, for frame
Location
Louvre - Tuileries, 75001 Paris, France
Design
Brand
The Louis Vuitton SS2023 menswear runway explored imaginative childhood spaces, a tribute to the brand's past with Virgil Abloh.
Key features
A giant toy racetrack was at the core of Louis Vuitton’s SS23 presentation, which took place at the Cour Carrée, one of the Louvre’s central courtyards. Conceived by PlayLab, Louis Vuitton dubbed it a Yellow Brick Road – ‘an evolutionary path for the mind where childlike fantasies come to life’, as in The Wizard of Oz. Giant red balls, concert-like tribunes, screens and sound systems supplemented the Louvre playground. The Marching 100 – Tallahassee-based A&M University’s marching band – kicked off the procession. Kendrick Lamar took the stage (rather, the front row) next. The rapper performed a live tribute to the late Virgil Abloh – Long Live Virgil – in a diamond-covered crown of thorns.
Abloh, who passed away at the age of 41 last autumn, began DJing in the late 1990s when he was in high school. The Louis Vuitton Studio Prêt-à-Porter Homme show amplified his passion for loud music: wireless loudspeakers were integrated into the collection and connected to the show's sound system. Lamar’s performance positioning in the front row further established the significance of sound and music to the show, raising the runway to the level of a concert.
Frame's take
The Louis Vuitton SS2023 show reflects the thinking defining the latest fashion week at large: most fashion houses brought theatrical performances to life for the menswear presentations. Rick Owens (literally) played with fire, and Dior imagined a flower garden inside a grey ‘black box’. There was snow at Doublet’s Sunday picnic and live horses at Casablanca. Marine Serre showed on a running track, and the grass from the courts of the Paris Tennis Club moved to the shoes and coats at Loewe. In times of war in Ukraine, deadly mass shootings during Pride events in Oslo and the US Supreme Court ending constitutional abortion rights, among myriad other crises globally, the fashion space provides fantasy, a route of escapism. It remains to be seen whether the upcoming womenswear fashion week will rise above entertainment.