Virgil Abloh’s final assortment for Louis Vuitton - the Men's Fall-Winter 2022 collection - was everything the designer represented, with the brand giving a fitting homage to the visionary
By: Soumya Jain Agarwal
Posted on: January 21, 2022
It was a dream indeed. Louis Vuitton’s turnaround under the highly unconventional Virgil Abloh, and his sudden, unexpected passing. How do you remember someone who was larger than life? There is no one perfect idea. Instead, Louis Vuitton is attempting to honour one of its greatest designers through a series of tributes.
The brand’s recent unveiling of Men’s Fall-Winter 2022 collection – the last collection worked on by Mr. Abloh – was one of the tributes. Called “The ∞th Field”, this was the designer’s 8th collection for Louis Vuitton.
The show started with a poignant message, a poem by Kai-Isaiah Jamal, accompanied by visions of surreal wonder. Moving on to the runway, the set was furnished by a submerged house with a red roof and smoke rising from the chimney, a king-size bed and a lamp.
As the live orchestra, sitting on a long table, starts playing, three dancers fall down and rise up as if in a rewind motion. What is it if not a dream?
Soon the models start walking the runway, some straight, some dancing, contorting, twisting. As the frenzy catches on, more of the models start dancing, with the lamp swaying and the bed moving.
The mood is playful – depicting the exact vision Mr. Abloh would have wanted – inclusive. Everything, everyone is normal.
The collection itself has all the signatures of Mr. Abloh. Oversized caps, iconic sneakers, silk hoodies, floral pant suits, velvet jackets, pinched coats, art-printed clothing, white gossamer skirts, funky iterations of handbags and trunks (the paint buckets are rather cute), and everything else in between.
The show ends with white angels with wings and veils.
With designers, models and the LV team streaming on to the runway to cheer and cry, you do realise that this was not a regular presentation. This was a memoir where nothing was ordinary, and everything was extraordinary.
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