Virgil Abloh bent the knee to Michael Jackson – a fellow African American from the Midwest whose “prodigious talent catapulted him to unparalleled fame” – in his Louis Vuitton show Thursday at Paris men’s fashion week.
The designer – the first African American ever to lead a major Paris label – did not make a direct comparison between himself and the “King of Pop”. But there was plenty there for those wishing to read between the lines.
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The 38-year-old’s bravura celebrity-studded show for his own ultra hot Off-White brand had already hogged the Paris limelight Wednesday.
And his Vuitton show Thursday in the gardens of the former royal Tuileries gardens confirmed the streetwear guru as the new pretender to the title of king of the catwalk.
The designer is currently jousting with the Georgian-born Demna Gvasalia, who designs both for Balenciaga and his own post-Soviet tinged poverty chic brand, Vetements, for the title of most influential creator on the block.
Abloh threw down the gauntlet by sending out a sparkly Michael Jackson white glove as his invitation to the show.
He penned a long tribute to Jackson in his notes and posted a poem he wrote about him to his 3.4 million Instagram followers.
He even included the flag of the singer’s home state, Indiana, in one of the pleated “flagification” pieces which brought a splash of vivid colour to an otherwise chromatically restrained collection.
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Black wizard
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Abloh, a renaissance man who studied architecture and engineering before switching to fashion to work with his friend rapper Kanye West, was born in neighbouring Illinois.
As well as a run of sparkly and jewel-encrusted Jackson-style gloves, he sent out a jumper, hoodie and a shirt and trousers with cartoon figures inspired by “The Wiz”, the 1978 all-black musical version of “The Wizard of Oz” which had Jackson as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross as Dorothy.
Iron Man also made an appearance in the guise of a hooded aluminium foil knee-length coat worn with similarly reflective sunglasses.
Abloh also made a nod to the legendary three-zip red jacket worn by Jackson in the video for his megahit “Beat It”.
But the designer – whose parents are from Ghana – showed he was not afraid to take a knife to the heritage of the Paris house, which has often toyed with colonial chic.
To show that the roles have changed, Abloh had one black model head off on his travels with a Vuitton bag wearing a safari hat and a quasi-military camel suit.
‘We will shock you’
This Paris fashion week has been something of a storming of the bastions by a rising tribe of streetwear-savvy designers from the US, Japan and China.
They almost threatened to put fashion’s provocateur-in-chief Gvasalia and Vetements in the shade.
But the corsair of the Caucasus, who regularly references/rips off other people’s logos in his work, had as usual a surprise up his hoodie sleeve.
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“Warning!! What you are about to see will disturb you. Even shock you,” proclaimed his first sweatshirt.
“There is a dark side to humanity the censors will not let you see… but we will. View at your own risk,” it added.
Yet other than sticking two fingers up to his Kering stablemate Saint Laurent by borrowing its iconic black jacket, “le smoking”, there was nothing to scare the horses.
With typical Gvasalia cheek he attached a disclaimer to the pocket: “This garment is a tribute to an iconic style. Modifications have been applied.”
Gvasalia told AFP that the computer geeks may be the new punks and he covered several of his models faces “to show how the Internet can give us the liberty to hide our identity.”
Flemish master Dries Van Noten has nothing left to prove but he still the went on a voyage to reinvent the suit, going back to the hungry grey days after World War II in search of a new shape.
He called the show “Nostalgia of the Future” and he pared back his usually brilliant prints to a new grey and brown dawn, based on baggy straight trousers and mix of slightly oversized shoulders and belted waists.
“I was afraid of colour taking over, grey is such a dull colour that it emphasises the shapes,” the Belgian creator said later.(AFP)
Photos: Louis Vuitton AW19, Catwalkpictures.com
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