Inspired, LV by Virgil Abloh Fall-Winter 2022 an Epic Show, Paris, January 20th 2022, Louis Vuitton presented, both in daylight and at night, Virgil Abloh’s final Men’s Fall-Winter 2022 Collection, live in Paris. The collection was showcased as per Virgil Abloh’s wishes and close friends gathered for the occasion to celebrate his legacy.
The 𝓛𝓸𝓾𝓲𝓼 Dreamhouse™ conceived by Virgil Abloh for Fall-Winter 2022 (Collection 8) serves to condate the themes and messages of the arc he created at Louis Vuitton.
It’s an octology that plays out in the tradition of the Hero’s Journey: the age-old story of the underdog, who is tried and tested, and becomes a sensation in the eyes of his spectators.
Guests in attendance included Tahar Rahim, Tyler the Creator, Naomi Campbell, Yahya Abdull Mateen II, Venus Williams, J Balvin, Victor Cruz, Natalia Vodianova, Manu Rios, Skepta,
Lil Dre, Evan Mock, Headie One, Bloody Osiris, Deon Hinton, Lucas Jagger, Kailand O’Morris, Bakar, Mos Def, IDK, Don Crawley, Kristen Noel Crawley and Luka Sabbat among other guests.
Executed in eight parts between 2018 and 2022, the work of the Men’s Artistic Director is never content with simply imagining new clothes and accessories. He seeks to evolve the human val – ues with which we imbue our dress codes, and test how they – as social, political and cultural signifiers – can be used to im – plement change beyond fashion. Driven by that imagination, the 𝓛𝓸𝓾𝓲𝓼 Dreamhouse™ conceived by Virgil Abloh for Fall-Winter 2022 (Collection 8) serves to condate the themes and messages of the arc he created at Louis Vuitton. It’s an octology that plays out in the tradition of the Hero’s Journey: the age-old story of the underdog, who is tried and tested, and becomes a sensation in the eyes of his spectators.
The coming-of-age story unites the designer with his audience, and allows future generations to mirror themselves in his experience. At its root is his Boyhood Ideology®, the childlike sensibility observed throughout his oeuvre. Virgil Abloh defines the Boyhood Ideology® as the unspoiled outlook of a child, who is yet to be affected by the preconceived ideas of society. He wants to reset our preordained perceptions and start from scratch where clothes are clothes and humans are humans. To cement this methodology, he frames his shows in childlike whimsy: the 𝓛𝓸𝓾𝓲𝓼 Dreamhouse™ of Collection 8, the bouncy castle and build-your-own-kite kit of Collection 3, or the rainbow runway of Collection 1 where it all begins.
Erected through the Palais-Royal, the rainbow is Virgil Abloh’s version of the Yellow-Brick Road central to the story of The Wizard of Oz. In the collection, he filters motifs from the film into the hip-hop silhouettes of the community he rose from in Rockford, Illinois. With implied irony, he mirrors himself in the story of the farm girl from the Midwest, who is transported by a tornado to the fairy-tale land of Oz. In this parallel, Oz is Paris, Dorothy is Virgil, and the Wizard is his imagination: the recurring idea of an all-powerful force of change, likewise represented in the wizard graphics in Collection 8, or the character of the father in the film for Collection 7.
Click here to watch the Louis Vuitton Show
Words by Arrnott Olssen
