Louis Vuitton Men's FW 2021 by Tim Walker Busts Power People Archetypes
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Whatever your opinion of Louis Vuitton Men’s artistic director Virgil Abloh, he is moving into his own zone of excellence — at least in the eyes of Bernard Arnault and the LVMH family.
Given the realities of business life, AOC reminds the naysayers of this simple reality check: “That’s all that counts.” Not only is LVMH thrilled with Virgil Abloh’s artistic and financial performance at Louis Vuitton Mens, but they are dramatically expanding his role and influence within the entire LVMH family of brands.
The month of July was intense for the Rockford, Illinois-born Abloh who is an artist, architect, entrepreneur, designer and DJ who — in the words of NYTimes woman-in-the-know Vanessa Friedman — is on track to “become the most powerful Black executive at the most powerful luxury goods group in the world.”
It’s true that Virgil Abloh is about “rewriting the rules”, and we love that this reality permeates most of what the hyper-creative visionary does with his time each day.
For the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall 2021 Campaign, Abloh enlists his trusted creative partner, fashion photographer Tim Walker to play a fashion game of chess.
“By taking archetypes such as the writer, the artist, the drifter, the salesman, the hotelier, the gallery owner, the architect, or the student, the collection explores the dress codes that inform our predetermined perceptions of these familiar characters. Virgil Abloh imbues the grammar of these codes with different values and employs fashion as a tool to change those assumptions. Throughout the collection, garments, accessories, motifs and techniques play on themes of illusion, replicating the familiar through the deceptive lenses of trompe l’oeil and filtrage. Leather goods are interpreted through the classic shapes of Louis Vuitton and enriched with added wording, shiny silver, or tuffetage embroidery.” – from Louis Vuitton
Ib Kamara styles models Felix Cheong-Macleod, Kai Isaiah Jamal, Kian Cleator, Omar Sesay, and Rohan Dileepkumar as players on the chess board in a game of power and assumptions about rogues (sorry rooks), knights, pawns, serfs (sorry, there are no serfs in the game of chess ), bishops (they run everything in America but — thankfully — not France), a king and queen — who think they rule everything in the land.
A little army of fashion lieutenants organizes the splendid vision pouring out of Abloh’s Black-man mind in the fall 2021 campaign, and they include creative direction from Helena Balladino, Piergiorgio Del Moro, and Samuel Ellis Scheinman, and set design by Gary Card. As Hillary always said: “It takes a village.”
In July LVMH announced that it was acquiring a 60 percent stake in Off-White, the luxury streetwear brand founded in 2013 and designed by Abloh, in addition to his responsibilities at LVMH Men. Off-White has 56 stores globally in 40 countries and is the largest brand LVMH has invested in, as part of its practice of supporting the personal brands of its designers.
In addition, the Chicago-based visionary will assume expanding responsibilities across the LVMH stable of Wine and Spirits brands that include Krug, Dom Pérignon and Hennessy; and Hospitality, which includes Cipriani in Venice and luxury properties across Africa.
By elevating Virgil Abloh, the Arnault family is trying to kick its own organization out of its comfort zone — not only with a paradigm-changing vision around race and culture, but also by giving Abloh an equity stake in new ventures.
“We try to make the founders turn over in their graves, but in the best way,” Michael Burke, Louis Vuitton CEO told Friedman. “Some of our biggest brands have a tendency not to see it’s in their best interests to stay plugged into the contemporary world.”
