Louis Vuitton and Virgil's archetypes
Virgil Abloh's "Ebonics / Snake Oil / The Black Box / Mirror, Mirror" collection for Louis Vuitton's Fall-Winter collection is a critique of the way society judges each individual: superficially. Virgil, in fact, examines the "unconscious prejudices instilled in the collective psyche according to the archaic norms of society". And what are the prerequisites for judgment often: the dress. Why does the dress really make the monk, after all? The message becomes clearer as the pieces of the collection are shown in this video-fashion show-performance: aphorisms coined by the conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner read "YOU CAN TELL A BOOK FROM THE COVER", "THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME", " FROM SOMEWHERE TO SOMEWHERE ", while Abloh's terminology" Tourist vs. Purist "- which is his term for outsiders: they decorate both garments and accessories. Highlights from the collection include a sheer monogram dress, a sweater trimmed with mirrored LV monograms that embellish the garment like snowflakes and a sculptural jacket. Striking new interpretations of the house classics such as the Christopher backpack which is now available in Epi leather with a spray-painted effect and, in particular, some sculptural pieces that use the original monogram leather, offering an airplane bag that nods to the invitations of the collection. A preponderance of formal looks with dresses made of unusual materials such as plastic, or with overlapping kilts over trousers, paired with accessories such as cowboy-style boots such as metal toes or other formal suits with marble effect prints and even hats fedora or baseball caps. The collection plays on contrasts by changing pre-established codes. For example, the Kente cloth (a fabric and silhouette originating from Virgil Abloh's Ghanaian origins) appears declined in tartan, a motif associated with Scotland, thus confusing our most ancient beliefs.
The show begins on a snowy hill in Switzerland, immortalizing rapper Saul Williams wearing a New Romantic silhouette suit along with one of the season's flagship pieces: a chrome monogram trunk. The scenes are transformed into a room flooded with light at the Tennis Club de Paris, in which stands a monolithic structure in green marble, bright green which is also the color of the trench coats, trousers and cardigans. The reference to James Baldwin's essay Stranger in the Village is transposed into the show performance by tracing with fashion strokes the time spent by the author in a Swiss village and his life in America as an African-American. Baldwin's essay further inspires the show's entire presentation, which is broken down into three acts expressed through dance, ice skating, poetry, and set design. Outside the facility, the models walk, sit in the iconic Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, nodding to Abloh's idealization of the artist, the tramp, the architect, the sales rep and other archetypal characters of society.
The collection therefore strives to illuminate and neutralize the "first impression" of when we see someone "dressed as", keeping the dress codes linked to certain roles and professions, but changing the human values associated with them. Virgil invites us to reflect on the current condition of the world, after Black Lives Matter, the inequalities of race, gender, sexuality and the need to create the same opportunities, the same dreams and equal freedom for children of all races, genders. and sexuality for when the question is asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up? Anything we want, Abloh seems to tell us.
