Fashion fans unable to holiday amid the Covid-19 pandemic were taken on an adventure by Louis Vuitton yesterday as the label showcased a travel inspired runway collection.
Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton s menswear, looked to the theme of displacement for his AW21 collection, having been inspired by James Baldwin’s novel Stranger in the Village, which is about a black man finding his way in a remote Swiss village.
Male models strutted the runway in lavish over-the-top garments, including two men who walked in puffer jackets adorned with 3D renderings of landmarks in Paris and New York.
Other models in the fashion show carried silver travel cases and accessorised with huge oversized airplane bags, in a nod to the travel experiences many have missed during the global coronavirus crisis.
3D renderings of Paris landmarks at Louis Vuitton
Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear, likes to take his audience on adventures down the rabbit hole. There have been sets recalling 1980s downtown Brooklyn, dreamscapes of fairytale forests and, on one memorable occasion, taking over an entire neighbourhood in Paris to create a (heavily luxified) children’s play park.
This year, Covid put paid to the lavish fashion show sets and in-person experiences, but for his autumn/winter 2021 men’s show, broadcast digitally, the designer looked to more solid ground; a paean to the bustling city life and travel experiences we’ve been deprived of this past 10 months.