Titled ‘Message in a Bottle’, the Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2021
Men’s collection will be presented in a voyage of international events from Paris to Shanghai and Tokyo. Unveiled gradually in chapters starting in July through the end of 2020, the format demonstrates Men’s Artistic Director
Virgil Abloh’s core values of diversity, inclusivity and unity.
The collection additional-ly proposes a multi-faceted upcycling initiative across his creative platforms.
By taking his show to sea, Virgil Abloh embraces the global community of
Louis Vuitton and meets his clients in their own parts of the world. Throughout its voyage – which may add destinations along the way – the collection will transform in an evolving exchange across cultures and nations. It is a free and inclusive dialogue between the House and its audiences, which transcends the traditional rules of fashion and seasonality.
On 9 July 2020, the House will screen a short film at the Louis Vuitton Maison de Famille in Asnières. Shot around the ancestral Paris home of the founder, the film follows movers packing up Louis Vuitton shipping containers and loading them onto a barge, which sails down the River Seine and leaves Paris. On it, a colourful crew of animated characters called ‘Zoooom with friends’ are hiding as stowaways.
The SS21 creative film – The Adventures of Zooom with Friends will premiere on the Fédération Française de la Mode’s website (https://fhcm.paris/en/).
On 6 August 2020, after crossing the oceans, the shipment arrives in Shanghai and the Louis Vuitton SpringSummer 2021 Men’s Runway Show
unfolds. No longer animated, ‘Zoooom with friends’ come to life
in the collection, which explores Virgil Abloh’s ongoing theme of boyhood: seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Each different to the other, the puppets represent the fundamental belief in inclusivity embedded within the Louis Vuitton Men’s collections.
Later this year, the voyage continues to Tokyo where a third event will be staged. The SpringSummer 2021 Men’s collection is founded in four methods of upcycling: new looks made from recycled material, looks repeated from the Fall-Winter 2020 collection, looks freely created by
the studio during the lockdown using recycled material, and new looks created from existing ideas. These principles set the premise for the evolution of the collection.
Edited by Arrnott Olssen
