Louis Vuitton. Pre- Fall 2021 Menswear

 

(Images:  Louis Vuitton)

As discussed in my review of Alyx's. Spring 2021 collection, the ascent of Mathew Williams, Heron Preston and Virgil Abloh light speed rise to fame and popularity has been no less than a phenomena in its collective namesake, Abloh's rather benign beginnings in 2012 as a small label called Pyrex Vision, which he reworked custom 'bootlegged' Champion and Ralph Lauren tops sourced from factory seconds and screen printed his logo onto them.  It was his later collaboration with Williams, now of Givenchy fame and Preston, who is based in Milan with his signature label - whose earlier manifestation was the South Californian DJ clothing hustle called Ben Trill, which had devised and owed its rapid exposure to popularity from social media feeds. The label's subsequent demise went pretty much the same way; as a rise and fall from its own digital hype.  When Abloh shut down his experimental 'art' brand Pyrex Vision in 2013, Williams and Preston, after Ben Trill began to direct their efforts on self promoting their own signature labels towards the European fashion powerhouses.

Still, in 2015 it was Abloh that caught the attention of mega conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, to which he received a first price finalist for his brand Off White and in 2018 he became the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear.   This ascension, as mentioned, is record breaking for a designer who began designing his own collection in 2013,  riding it to success in a period of seven years.  Yes, the hype maybe questionable, but the dollar signs are real – with LVMH clearly happy with the arrangement with Abloh and since 2018, where he has maintained  the reigns of Louis Vuitton's menswear collections.  Yet, since becoming creative director for LV, he hasn't completely cut away the previous designer Kim Jones stylizations that had set a precedence for the men's looks of the famous fashion house.   Maintaining Jones's template of eclectic concepts, Abloh has not shifted too much away or taken that many risks from the previous imprinted styles for Louis Vuitton, as sales did not decrease under Jones.  So it is understandable that Abloh has shown a cautious desire of attaching some of his aesthetic content, which he is famous for, onto the prestige of  Louis Vuitton.  But I wonder if this tentative showcasing in turn has affected the creative direction, including the overall fits and styles on offer. 

However, For the Louis Vuitton's pre-fall 2021 lookbook, Abloh has decided to offer, very slightly,  his printed text concepts that he is renown for onto his latest collection for LV, whilst retaining the, at times, experimental tailored looks.  The refinement of Louis Vuitton precision pattern making is evident, yet, as noted in precious collections from Abloh for LV,  the fittings seem off, with bunched up hemlines and boxy shapes.  Particularly seen from the polyester, wool fabrics that Louis Vuitton uses for their more formal arrays, each collection to date seems to becoming more and more heavily ladened and poorly styled.   Unsure if the reasons are that the styling is not as precise as it could be or the looks generally have developed a sloppiness within the materials used.   Either way, a comparison to Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton's creative director for Ready-to-Wear, is warranted, in which you can see Ghesquière's attention to details, more so when is arranging a new collection, ensuring that the fittings and styles crafted are reflection of the exclusivity presented.