Louis Vuitton's Spring 2024 Men's Capsule Collection Is A Fusion of Visions

 
 

creative direction by Tyler, the Creator and Pharrell Williams

Louis Vuitton’s iconic imagery is a staple in the fashion world, unique and identifiable amidst the ever-changing tides of trends. Despite this classic style that cements the brand’s singular voice, their ability to evolve and innovate that image is constant. The 2024 Men’s Capsule Collection displays this innovation while still staying true to the brand’s face by staging an instinctive union between the visual universes, combining the distinctive artistic voices of the Menswear Creative Director Pharrell Williams with long time friend of him and the brand, Tyler, the Creator. Fusing the signature preppy sophistication popularized by the artist with the elegant dandy dressing established by Pharrell Williams at the Maison, it evokes the brand’s common palette of earthy creams and browns, as well as muted yet still vibrant blues and greens to support the pops of bright color that bring the air of spring into this lineup. The emblem of the collection being a craggy monogram, hand-drawn by the artist himself. Throughout the collection you can feel the creative collaboration take place and see the marriage of these two’s strong visions come together.

 
 

Read Bliss Foster's Notes on Paris Fashion Week Men's Fall 2024

 

Loewe photograph by Daniele Oberrauch / gorunway.com

 

Loewe continues to be a dominant force in Paris. Even when we can’t possibly fathom that the winning streak has lasted this long, Jonathan Anderson’s consistency remains a staple of the week. Though, this should not be mistaken for stagnation. Runway pieces were merged with their nearby garments, most notably: socks that grew into pants and a waistband with a kangaroo pocket as a roof. The show itself is not enough to understand how exciting these clothes are — both the shearlings and the leather could be described as buttery, the patterns remain radically inventive, and the volume of beading in this collection is truly something to behold. 

 

Kartik Research photograph by Vivek Vadoliya

 

This season was the season of parents. Designer Kartik Kumra presented his brand’s first collection in Paris in the enthusiastic presence of his parents. They proudly wore their favorite designs from his emerging label, Kartik Research — a label whose fabrics are famously created without the use of electricity and whose embellishments feature the skilled artisanship found in Kartik’s home country of India. At KidSuper, Colm Dillane’s parents can be seen as crucial members of the team, often credited by Colm for contributing to the presentations. This season, Mr. & Mrs. Dillane made room for other members of the tightly-packed front row by squeezing together. Colm’s father was ultimately squeezed off the bench and enjoyed the show seated in his wife’s lap, creating a quintessentially KidSuper moment: optimistic and motion-picture-like.

 

courtesy of Louis Vuitton

 

It is possible that Pharrell’s work is attempting to revive the American spirit in fashion, maybe even through the same romantic lens with which Ralph Lauren created an empire. But his Louis Vuitton attempts to mythologize the beauty of his home beyond the whitewashed notions that have dominated the idea of American-ness in the minds of those abroad. This season, the Dakota and Lakota tribes were foundational to the collection, both in their artistic contributions on clothing and bags, as well as their endorsement of Pharell’s Western Americana that introduced the rest of the world to the Native American and Black cowboys. Cowboys of color can be easily forgotten when the idea of the West is so aligned with Buffalo Bills and Butch Cassidys, but through Pharrell, I think Louis Vuitton is hoping to create a new and more inclusive empire.

photo by Luca Tombolini and Gaspar Ruiz Lindberg

photo by Christina Fragkou

photo by Luca Tombolini and Gaspar Ruiz Lindberg

This is the footwear segment of this article. Among any discussion of footwear in any recent season, you will find well-earned praise for the creations of Rushemy Botter & Lisi Herrebrugh. Historic standouts include a hybridized cleat and banker shoe stacked on top of each other, or a 3D printed Reebok sneaker inspired by murex shells. This season, Botter’s shoes move us back to hybridization; the result is 70% soccer cleat, but bred with a bouldering shoe to create a rounded heel. What’s exciting is that we’re finally getting some Botter concept shoes as product. It’s, of course, difficult to make a prototype into a sellable shoe. Just ask Rick Owens, who continued to tackle the “concept as product” dilemma in the most effective way of any working designer. With Rick, if your eyes see it on the runway, it will be sold as product. This promise becomes even more compelling when you consider the Rick Owens lamp helmets, personal fog machines and now, balloon shoes equipped with inflatable valve. These flotation shoes were a staple of the show, which took place in Rick’s Paris home with a scaled down audience. 

 

courtesy of Junya Watanabe

 

Pattern cutting is the primary contribution to the world for certain brands, Junya Watanabe immediately comes to mind. In this iteration of his absurdly complex patterns, the result is more visually subtle, yet some of the ideas executed in this show are so simple and brilliant that you wonder why it hasn’t been done before — notably a coat with sleeves takes the common gesture of wearing a coat as a cape, but doesn’t give you the option to use the sleeves at all. Outerwear fuses together top and bottom to create long coats. Despite how often the comparisons are drawn between the designers who used to be pattern cutters for Rei Kawakubo, I can’t help but think of how this idea would fit so well into Chitose Abe’s Sacai and her elaborate experimentation with hybridizing clothing. On the other hand, Sacai’s approach is much more detail oriented and uses more visual reference — a clear ode to pajamas becomes rugged outerwear at Sacai.

 

Dior photo by Brett Lloyd

 

Dior Men was a carousel this season, a literal carousel that spun the models around in a sort of lazy-susan (a mega-susan??) and then lifted the looks eight feet off the ground. The music was the “Dance of the Knights” from the ballet of Romeo and Juliet, a dance that features predominantly circular movements, so that seems to check out. Dior’s menswear offering centers around tailoring every season, and usually brings variety through styling details, with one noteworthy detail in particular. This season, that detail comes through women’s dress flats and mary-janes worn with colorful socks. Kim Jones continues to find bizarre deep-cut garments to include in unexpected ways: a belted safari jacket is a great example. 

 

Airei photo by Andrew Morales

 

Performance art and fashion have endured a rocky relationship — at times, performance art is a critical component of understanding a presentation, at other times, it is distracting at its absolute best. Thankfully, the emotionally intricate brand Airei reminded us this season that performance art is a deeply fitting cross section with conceptual fashion. Designer Drew Curry did not outsource the performance art — he meditated in an armchair for his presentation while attendees tried on the collection. By meditated, I mean he sat in an armchair for six hours staring at a video of his newborn son. Members of the press relations team at his showroom, Dover Street Market Paris, told me that he had originally intended to meditate for twelve hours but was limited in time by the venue he hosted the presentation in. But performance aside, this was undeniably Curry’s best collection since the inception of the brand. Materials at Airei have always been exciting and innovative, in the past he has used fish scraps from sushi restaurants for their leather and human hair mats as an insulating and absorbent textile. The yak wool coats this season feature one of the most beautiful and dimensional fabrics I have seen in my career. 

 

courtesy of Hermès

 

This was our first time attending Hermès — and it did not disappoint in the slightest. In fact, it was even better than I had ever anticipated. Ultra luxury houses have earned this reputation for being boring. Hermès bucks that assumption and presents a collection that appears minimal to the eye, yet features some of the most exciting pattern work I have seen this year. Details include cashmere linings that extend past the zipper, squishy deerskin coats, double-collared shirts, and a ponyhair sleeveless top that looked as good as it felt.

 

Winnie photo by Stanislas Motz-Neidhart

 

Winnie’s collection this season was a standout because its founder, Idris Balogun, is the most qualified newcomer to the Paris calendar. He cut his teeth on Saville Row and now brings that millimeter precision to the runway. This season, by focusing on ease, Balogun was able to deliver a consistent and confident drop-shoulder to many of his blazers and jackets. The casting and styling was exceptionally executed and authentic to the Beat Generation and ’50s inspiration that underpinned the show — a refreshing new source of inspiration for tailoring. 

Walter Van Bierendonck photo by Catwalk Pictures / Etienne Tordoir

Deceptive goofiness took everyone by surprise with Doublet and Walter Van Bierendonck; both brands that many folks often dismiss as lighthearted and silly. Walter delivered a poignant performance art piece more than a runway. Each of the models was given a speaker smaller than a golf ball and were told to walk slowly through a series of rooms reciting facts about themselves while a different song played from each model’s speaker. Walter’s ongoing anti-war theme feels more relevant with each passing season. Walter’s designs are not runway-only, it’s always wonderful to see a devoted customer proudly wearing the same piece in the wild. Doublet, the Japanese brand with the most playful shows in Paris, changed directions this season by delivering a parody of Balenciaga. Imitating Demna’s self-serious in-joke created a new move in fashion’s Irony Chess.

Santa Cruz by Saskia Schmidt & Pino Sartorio

full look: Balenciaga archives

photography by Pino Sartorio
styling by Saskia Schmidt
hair & makeup by Ischrak Nitschke
modeling by Marta Toba

coat: Barbour International
jacket: Brogger
dress: Jaded London 
shoes: Louis Vuitton x Vestiaire Collective

full look: Ottolinger

top & dress: Preen by Thornton Bregazzi
skirt: Gucci archive 
glasses: HBA x Gentle Monster 

full look: Balenciaga archives

Color My Life With The Chaos Of Trouble By Jana Gerberding and Mine Uludag

photography by Jana Gerberding
styling by Mine Uludag
casting by Eli Xavier
modeled by Winter, Aime, Bethlehem, Lici, Xen Hur, Dhyhani, and Sophia

Life today offers almost infinite possibilities juxtaposed by maximum confrontation with internal pressures, domestic threats, and global uncertainties. We participate in social movements that are meant to liberate us from oppression and share them on the same social platforms that torment us with an incessant evaluation of our appearance and identity. What exactly do you have to prove today as a young woman? What is socially expected? What does femininity even mean? Is there a new femininity? Does gender play a role at all? Isn‘t it just about individuality and belonging?

Making choices and gaining confidence is for many young people an inner conflict between knowing who they want to be and who they really are.

Our heroines in these portraits embody different possibilities of the feminine. A portrayal that describes the role of the body, identity, the power of self-confidence, and individuality.

This is a portrait of a growing female generation who is not afraid.

LEFT Dyhani is wearing full look Celine.
RIGHT Sophia is wearing panties by Prada, bra by Dior, and stockings by Hermès.

Bethlehem is wearing dress by Arturo Obegero.

LEFT Dyhani is wearing leather coat by Max Mara and sunglasses by Celine.
RIGHT full look Celine

Winter is wearing white blouse by Jil Sander and black skirt by Dries Van Noten.

Aime is wearing skirt and jewelry by Versace and cropped zip top by Alexander McQueen.

LEFT Sophia is wearing bra by Versace, hoodie by Sankuanz, skirt by Louis Vuitton.
RIGHT Xen is wearing top and skirt by Ottolinger.

LEFT Bethlehem is wearing corsage by Alexander McQueen.
RIGHT Bethlehem is wearing dress by Arturo Obegero and boots by Dries Van Noten

LEFT Xen is wearing dress by Missoni.
RIGHT Sophia is wearing bra and shoes by Versace, hoody by Sankuanz, and skirt by Louis Vuitton.

Aime is wearing skirt, boots and balaklava by Max Mara, long sleeve shirt by Lacoste, and leather jacket by Louis Vuitton.

LEFT Xen is wearing dress and heels by Missoni.
RIGHT Lici is wearing long sleeve shirt by Balenciaga, skirt by Loewe, stockings by Hermès, and boots by Dries Van Noten.

Read Our Round-Up Review of Paris Fashion Week 2015 →

Again, I will have to touch upon what makes this particular round unique to the industry and important for fashion. But honesty, do I actually need to make an argument concerning Paris and its total domination of conceptual fashion? OK, here’s an argument for you: Raf Simons, Rick Owens, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yammamoto, Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Junya Wattanabe, Olivier Rousteing, and need I continue? A lot happens at Paris: some bad, some good, and some utterly transcendent. It’s too much to write about really. It’s the longest of the fashion weeks and it can be easy to forget about incredible shows mere days after they happened. Today as I am baffled yet excited over the announcement of Demna Gvasalia of Vetements being named creative director to Balenciaga while former Balenciaga godhead Nicolas Ghesquiere continues to alter the fabric of what we know to be Louis Vuitton, I almost forgot that Rick Owens put on the funniest and most conceptual collection of the week. So another season is over, and the buying begins. See you at the menswear shows. Click here to read the full review. Text by Adam Lehrer. 

Louis Vuitton “Objets Nomades” at Salone del Mobile 2015

On display on Corso Venezia, Louis Vuitton asked 9 designers to interprate the art of travelling through innovative and luxurious handcrafted objects. The "Objets Nomades" collection was presented in conjunction with the 2015 Salone del Mobile. photographs by Juanco Viso. 

[FIRST LOOK] Louis Vuitton Presents Luxury Bike Polo

To introduce the launch of the new bike polo, Louis Vuitton presents an new action packed short film starring Jonathan Leder and starring Britany Nola (Playboy's Miss November 2012) as a sexy referee during a bike polo match. One of Louis Vuitton’s ongoing projects is the “sport objects” series, represented here with an elegant fixed gear, polo bike made up of elements of steel, aluminium, leather, canvas, and high-density plastic (the front wheel is closed with damier graphite canvas to prevent the ball from passing through or to get a mallet mingled in the wheel). These state of the art - not for sale - unique pieces are also highly functional equipment, designed by Louis Vuitton and produced in collaboration with the most renowned craftsmen in their respective field. Faithful to its innovator origins, this luxury Bike Polo perfectly embodies the exclusive sport objects produced by the House. With the film, director Jonathan Leder introduces his highly aesthetic vision of bike polo, an elegant back-lit choreography where all the players glide into a film noir scenery; a hazy staging featuring the “Louis Vuitton Boys”, not without a touch of irony.

Oliver in Front of Yayoi's Installation for Louis Vuitton

Oliver Maxwell Kupper in front of Yayoi Kusama's installation at Louis Vuitton as part of their current collaboration. Pick up a copy of our current issue to read our exclusive interview and story with Yayoi Kusama - easily Japan's most famous artist. photograph by Summer Bowie

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

Princess of polka dots Yayoi Kusama has teamed up with Louis Vutton for a special capsule collection. The collection, entitled Infinitely Kusama, is set to be unveiled on July 10, conveniently timed with Kusama’s major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York. The goods will be available in Vuitton’s 461 stores starting July 11, with a second line arriving in October.

Her New Religion

Wearing Larry Gagosian and billionaire art patron Eli Broad's credit cards as charms from a rosary like Chanel necklace, and decked out in other shiny designer accessories, the subject in the painting, entitled Her New Religion, by artist Anna Halldin Maule, is a brilliant psychological statement on the blatant and shocking materialism of the art world. The subject, wearing nothing save for a pair of tiny pink lace panties, in a pose similar to the praying saints of classical paintings, almost denounces the art world as a religion where money is god and billionaire patrons are like sugar-daddy saints. Anna Halldin Maule, a painter who originally hails from Sweden and now lives in Hawaii with her husband and creative partner, uses techniques of the the old masters to paint incredibly life like portraits that explore the themes of materialism and money with glossy, erotic overtones.  After the jump watch the whole process of her working with the model, capturing the perfect pose, and the meticulous brushstroke by brushstroke process of her amazing painting technique. www.halldinmaule.com

Louis Vuitton Voyages

Vuitton Family, 1888

When Louis Vuitton founded his maroquinerie label in 1854 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris he knew how to make a good travelling case.  This is proven in durability and by the fact that most of the cases, even the earliest examples, still stand the test of time. And, just as well, the ethos of handmade luxury, that has slowly faded into a seemingly prehistoric notion, has lasted too–leaving the Vuitton unprecedented in the integrity of its craft–even through corporate mastication, mergers, and a platform in the publicly traded market. The Louis Vuitton label has had its own history in China too–in an age when the orient was a universe away from its Parisian base. In 1931 the Croisiere Jaune expedition led 40 men to drive 12,000 km from the Mediterranean coast to the China coast, following the footsteps of Marco Polo, was outfitted with Louis Vuitton trunks. And even further back to the 1907 Paris to Peking expedition when members struggled against temperatures as low as -30 degrees in cars outfitted with Louis Vuitton trunks. On view now until August 31 at the National Museum of China in Beijing, "Louis Vuitton Voyages" explores its own history and tradition since its inception as well as celebrates the label's place in Chinese culture.

[Lost Generation] Voyager avec Annemarie Scharzenbach

An overview of the work of traveler, journalist, writer, photographer, Annemarie Scharzenbach, is set to be released as a collaboration publication with the French journal La Quinzaine Littéraire and Louis Vuitton. Annemarie, born in Switzerland in 1908, was an icon of the Lost Generation and the live fast die young ethos of the Weimar Republic, an interwar era of morphine and fast cars. Voyager avec Annemarie Scharzenbach - La Quête du réel is the first in depth look at her work, accompanied by about forty photographs taken by Annemarie herself. The book is set to be released in May. www.quintzaine-litteraire.presse.fr