It has been a little over a year since the passing of Louis Vuitton’s late artistic director, Virgil Abloh. Since his death, the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2023 Fashion Show is the brand’s first men’s fall-winter collection without his name on it. The Louis Vuitton team organized the production with guest designer and KidSuper founder Colm Dillane. I couldn’t help but feel that because of the lack of a sole leader, the show was missing a sense of direction and intentionality, causing various clashing elements.
The show’s theme was “Drawing on the formative moments of our upbringing and the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood.” The show begins with a one-and-a-half-minute short film encapsulating the process of growing up from a baby to an adult. I found the clip a tad cliche but still heartwarming. It undoubtedly captured the essence of the chosen theme. In the final shot, the man closes a door with a poster of Spanish singer Rosalia, which begs the first issue.
The main performer at the show, Rosalia, undoubtedly has stellar performance skills. She has an immense stage presence and a lovely voice. Despite all this, I felt she wasn’t a good fit. Her star power and larger-than-life personality dominated the show while distracting from the collection. The music’s intense beats and suggestive lyrics contradict the theme. Many of the songs told stories of romantic relationships, some of which contained sexual undertones. I failed to see how it relates to embracing childhood. Her performance would be more engaging if paired with the right show, but this was a miss. This is not to say that all performers with great fame distract from fashion shows. A beautiful example of the success of this tactic is the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2022 Fashion Show, when Tyler the Creator made an appearance that contributed to the show perfectly. It all depends on choosing the right performance based on compatibility as opposed to fame alone.
The collection itself mainly reflected the theme. The looks feature many pieces reminiscent of childhood, including iridescent bags, whimsical clothing made from written letters, and what I like to call “sleeve belts.” The bags add a hint of playfulness to the collection. At first, I was opposed to the “letter looks” until I discovered that they were scans of meaningful letters written by the studio in their native tongues. This extra context changed my perspective on the matter. As far as the “sleeve belts” go, I am obsessed. Many of the blazers in the collection feature an extra pair of sleeves wrapping around the waists. This element adheres to that childlike aspect in an almost adorable way. While I do not believe the collection was as cohesive as previous shows, I think it did its job.
The set fell short of my expectations. For the past couple of years, Louis Vuitton has amazed me with their set design and choreographed interaction with it. As an audience, we are used to being transported into a different world with Louis Vuitton’s sets but this one felt too formulaic and reminded me of the displays at Ikea. The way the models interacted with the set was too predictable and not inspiring to me. Overall I believe there could have been more creativity and care put into the set.
Virgil Abloh had a clear, artistic vision. He was a master of storytelling and forging cohesive, trance-like, ethereal experiences and creating raw, unfiltered art. While it is important for a fashion house to evolve after a leader passes, it is also important to maintain its legacy and standards, which this show lacked. I did not expect or want Louis Vuitton to replicate Abloh’s aesthetic. However, while watching, I felt as if I had fallen off an ethereal plane and was disappointingly dropped back on earth.
Words by Mishi Ali.
Graphic by Reem Hinedi.