Louis Vuitton Stages Virgil Abloh Swansong In Paris
21.01.2022 - 02:11
/ etcanada.com
Louis Vuitton pulled out the stops Thursday to present the final collection of Virgil Abloh, the house’s first African-American designer who died in November after a two-year battle with cancer.
The stage of a bedroom, staircase, trampoline and smoking chimney on the central Paris runway conjured up nostalgic images evoking Abloh’s childhood here. Similar themes defined his Louis Vuitton aesthetic since 2018.
Here are some highlights of Thursday’s fall-winter 2022 shows.
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ABLOH’S LAST SHOW
“Life is so short you can’t wait even a day” is one of Abloh’s quotes included in the show notes. It was typical of the epicureanism and optimism in this display — and the overall life and art of the Illinois-born designer.
The colour-rich presentation in the Carreau du Temple in Le Marais was a fitting swansong. It began with model-acrobats bouncing off a trampoline onto a flight of stairs.
Big peaked ears on Batman-like caps evoked a childhood obsession, as did oversized baseball headwear or graffiti-style prints.
Loose peaked-shoulder suits, often long in proportion, defined much of the aesthetic which riffed on basketball attire and the street. Despite the nostalgia, the designs had a typically aggressive edge from the erstwhile collaborator of Kanye West.
Garish sheeny purples, jelly bean blues and lots of acid color mixed with gold chains, thick collars and caps worn to the side. Prints and motifs gleamed in overpowering combinations.
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Abloh’s street-infused styles had marked a departure for the house from the more luxuriant styles of his predecessor, British