Just when the world thought the Spring-Summer 2022 presentation in Miami in November was his final curtain call, Virgil re-emerges with a glorious encore showcasing Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2022 collection. 

 
“Life is so short you can't waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do.”

Virgil Abloh

Source: Louis Vuitton

When Virgil Abloh passed away on November 28th, the shockwave of disbelief reverberated around the world and had us asking &ldquo;why does one of the brightest lights have to fade so soon?&rdquo;&nbsp; At the age of 41 years old, although he had already achieved what most people would only dream to accomplish in two or three lifetimes (if at all), he should have only just been getting started.&nbsp; He deserved decades more time.

The Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton menswear since 2018 and Founder and Creative Director of Off-White who simultaneously juggled several other collaborative projects did not slow down despite his two-year silent battle with cancer.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Rather it appears to have sped him up, increasing his sense of urgency over the preciousness of time and the need to maximise his output.&nbsp;

The multi-hyphenate creative - Innovator, Designer, Artist, accredited Civil Engineer and Architect by education, DJ, entrepreneur, inventor, cultural disruptor - who intermixed all of these assets into transformative newness seemed to have superhuman capacity in what he could produce. In his final two years he leaned into this seemingly limitless energy, squeezing out every ounce of creativity that his mind, body and soul had to offer in what little time he had left.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The months to follow would provide evidence of the eternal optimist&rsquo;s refusal to let the cancer defeat him before he could complete a few more projects.

Two days following his passing, the presentation of his Louis Vuitton Men&rsquo;s Spring-Summer 2022 collection took place during Art Basel Miami Beach, which sadly wound up doubling as a memorial for him titled &ldquo;Virgil Was Here&rdquo; etched across the sky.&nbsp; The timing of two days between his death and the presentation brings me to believe that he used every bit of strength to try to hold on in order to see this presentation through.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The symbolic elements, the meticulous preparation, orchestration and execution of the show were clear indications of Abloh&rsquo;s hands-on involvement in every detail.&nbsp;

Source: BoF

Emotions ran high as the voiceover of Virgil talking about his &ldquo;return to childhood wonderment&rdquo; filled the sky alongside motifs of recurring themes observed throughout his tenure at Louis Vuitton: his nod to the fantasy of &ldquo;Oz&rdquo; in the form of red hot air balloons; birch trees, and paper planes flying toward the heavens compiled of hundreds of light drones, designed by creative duo Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/studio.drift/">Studio Drift</a>.&nbsp;

To me, it was equally a magical while solemn event that served both as Virgil&rsquo;s creative expression of his ongoing fascination with youth and dreams, combined with his preparedness of what was to come for him: his transition into the afterlife.&nbsp; Perhaps he saw his afterlife as eternally stepping into his world of imagination, and this gave him a sense of peace.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Source:  Louis Vuitton

That week in Miami marked yet another project under his belt completed and unveiled:&nbsp; the opening of the second freestanding Louis Vuitton Men&rsquo;s store in the world.&nbsp; The 3,586 square foot flagship features an all-white &ldquo;Diamond Screen&#39;&#39; fa&ccedil;ade designed by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/marcelwanders/">Marcel Wanders Studio</a> and pieces from Louis Vuitton&rsquo;s Objects Nomades collection. The store&rsquo;s overall aesthetic is exemplar of what Virgil infused into the brand with such finesse: the blending of Louis Vuitton&rsquo;s deep-rooted sense of heritage and tradition with modern contemporary architecture and design.

Many had assumed that these Miami projects were Virgil&rsquo;s final bow as creative boss at Louis Vuitton Men, Off-White and other ventures.&nbsp;

But he had more in store as if he wanted to say &ldquo;I may be gone, but I am not done yet. Watch this space.&quot;

This past Tuesday January 20th, 2022 Louis Vuitton presented his eighth and final Fall-Winter Men&rsquo;s 2022 collection for the house, which he had just managed to complete.&nbsp;

Held at the Carreau du Temple in Paris and rebranded as &ldquo;Louis Dreamhouse&rdquo; for the day, the venue transformed into a metaphysical space of possibility - a mind-expanding interior of ideas, prospects and encouragement. &nbsp;Seen through the lens of Virgil Abloh&rsquo;s central Boyhood Ideology&reg; (defined as seeing the world with the eyes of a child),&nbsp; the show was an amalgamation of highlights and recurring themes from his eight-season tenure with the French luxury brand.&nbsp;

While the clothes were technically the purpose of the presentation, the real driving force was to pay homage to Abloh&rsquo;s work, vision and legacy.&nbsp;

LV Abloh FW2022 set 1.JPG

The collection was titled &ldquo;The &infin;th Field,&rdquo; featuring the infinity symbol which, given that this was his eighth and final show, the symbol&rsquo;s integration could also be interpreted as angel wings and the number eight.

The show opened with a short film featuring a poem by Kai-Isaiah Jamal in which he stated: &#39;When it&#39;s all over and our time is no longer, we leave it behind for others to seek their own dreams.&rdquo;

Louis Vuitton&rsquo;s touching nod to his sense of wonderment surrounding dreams, youth and boyhood was in every visible and audible inch of the presentation.&nbsp; With strong referencing of his Fall/Winter 2020 &ldquo;Heaven on Heart&rdquo; show featuring a door reminiscent of that in &ldquo;The Truman Show&rdquo; (the door in the film symbolised freedom, rebirth and stepping into the unknown) the surrealist setting immediately transported the audience into a whimsical wonderland featuring a sky-blue dreamscape enveloping the crowd, conjuring up the sense of being above the clouds and in a world of imagination.&nbsp;

Top to bottom: Door/stairway in the F/W 2022 set, F/W2022 "Heaven on Heart" and "The Truman Show"

The middle of the stage featured a sunken house with a smoking chimney, while a large-scaled bed sat adjacent atop a platform with a staircase and a trampoline down below it.&nbsp; The elements together were symbolic reinforcements of the world of imagination.

In Abloh&rsquo;s absence, Ib Kamara - his longtime friend, stylist and the Editor-in-Chief of Dazed magazine - stepped in to direct the runway.&nbsp; The performance- and music-driven show featured diversity-driven British Chineke! Orchestra sitting at a long dining table performing the score written by another dear friend of his, rapper and producer Tyler, The Creator. &nbsp;Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and with the show&#39;s music direction by Benji B, the end of the soundtrack ended with Tyler, The Creator&rsquo;s track &ldquo;See You Again&rdquo; featuring Kali Uchis.&nbsp; Yoann Bourgeois&rsquo;s dance troupe danced, leapt, bounced off trampolines, and rolled around the stage while Tyler himself rode a bicycle with a &ldquo;kid in a candy shop&rdquo; big smile on his face.&nbsp; &nbsp; The 67 runway models moving about the space alongside the 20 performers doubled as performance artists themselves.&nbsp; Collectively the show was a masterful orchestration and a fantastical, joyful embodiment of Virgil&rsquo;s mind and vision.

As for the collection itself, Louis Vuitton describes it as follows: &ldquo;The collection transmutes the dress codes popularly tied to societal archetypes and patchworks them in new ways. Through materials and techniques, gestures of surrealism take form, abstracting the familiar and expanding our horizons.&rdquo;

One of Abloh&rsquo;s central driving forces throughout his life and career was to leverage and intermix Art, Design, Music, Architecture, and especially Fashion in effort to &ldquo;redesign the [cultural] system to operate in a better manner that relates to our knowledge and our evolution,&rdquo; as he explained in an interview with the Ethical Fashion Podcast in March of 2021.&nbsp; This collection strongly drove this message.

While black has always been the go-to hue and sombre emotion are the conventions for honouring those who have died, Virgil was light, life, vigour, positivity, playful.&nbsp; These qualities and this energy was channelled through this collection.&nbsp; It was an eclectic, extravagant showcase of his sense of limitless boundaries, his &ldquo;anything is possible&rdquo; ethos and the transformative high-low luxury-meets-streetwear design philosophy that he infused into everything created at Louis Vuitton.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Reinterpreted trunk, briefcase and handbag

The collection showcased a blending of exceptional tailoring, varsity jackets and sports jerseys, lush velvets and silk, floral prints, prints of famous paintings from the Masters, cartoon motifs, a full style referencing Neo from The Matrix right down to the sunglasses, billowy maxi skirts, monogrammed puff jackets and denim, printed balaclavas, boxy trench coats, tie-dyed bags, cat ear-shaped hats and his original shoe designs. One of the most noteworthy items was the shape-warped Louis Vuitton leather trunk reminiscent of one of Salvador Dali&rsquo;s melting clocks, doubling as an Objet d&rsquo;Art.&nbsp; And never missing an opportunity to add humour, there were objects and elements that were demonstrative of his love for taking ordinary objects and turning them into fashion and luxury collectibles.&nbsp; Paint cans-turned-handbags, for instance.


"Humor is an entry point for humanity." 
Virgil Abloh

Paint cans-turned-Louis Vuitton handbags

We saw an entire spectrum of hues including emerald green, aquamarine, powder blue, royal blue, lavender, deep purple, red, yellow, brown, grey, black; and juxtaposing patterns, textiles and styles mashed together in some cases.&nbsp; It was a celebration of colour, texture, and aesthetic diversity.&nbsp; Suddenly the multi-colored styles on the runway shifted to eleven all-white clad models, including three adorned with lace angel wings embroidered with LV detailing, with Naomi Campbell ending the show in the private presentation for friends and family.&nbsp; The sudden change from an eclectic mix of colours and shapes to 100% white I see as emblematic of how beautifully rich, colourful, diverse and playful this world and life is.&nbsp; Perhaps the white is a poetic reference to the peaceful existence in the afterlife.&nbsp;

In attendance were Abloh&rsquo;s wife Shannon, who sat front row centre alongside the Arnault family, and celebrity friends of the designer including J Balvin, Victor Cruz, Naomi Campbell, Venus Williams, Evan Mock, Luka Sabbat, and Natalia Sabanova.

At the end of the show, the performers and models slowed down, looked out and upward as if to search for Virgil somewhere up in his dreamland clouds.&nbsp; Perhaps also a symbolic gesture to praise his eternal &ldquo;the sky&rsquo;s the limit&rdquo; anything-is-possible way of thinking and creating.&nbsp; I would like to believe that Virgil was looking down and smiling, seeing everyone looking up and smiling back at him.

FAD0A2FC-9D24-462D-B7A0-2CB86356F8B8.jpeg

Virgil&rsquo;s life&rsquo;s work was never about himself.&nbsp; It was always about planting the seed of inspiration in others, introducing new perspectives.&nbsp; His intellectual creations were the medium for channelling his message, the tools in his desire to &ldquo;re-architect&rdquo; culture to make the world a little bit better than it is. &nbsp; He is one of the rare human beings who universally inspired the world at large.&nbsp; Beyond the runway, he taught us so many lessons and wisdom about how the creative realm has the power to redesign culture and society for the better and in the name of equality.&nbsp; He believed profoundly that Art is the medium for inspiring future generations.&nbsp;

Louis Vuitton stated in November: &ldquo;Virgil was driven by his dedication to his craft and to his mission to open doors for others and create pathways for greater equality in art and design.&rdquo;

Tyler, The Creator said on his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CW3Y18QJUhc/">Instagram account </a>upon the news of Abloh&rsquo;s passing:&nbsp; &ldquo;Sometimes, part of us sharing our wild ideas is to get approval from our peers to keep it pushing, but Virgil was ALWAYS a cheerleader. For everyone.&rdquo;

“Everything I do is for the 17-year-old version of myself”
Virgil Abloh 


virgil-abloh-was-best-known-as-the-founder-of-streetwear-label-off-white-and-the-artistic-director-of-louis-vuittons-menswear-collection (1).jpg

The clothing that he designed is not his legacy, it is the medium.&nbsp;&nbsp;

His legacy is his transformative contribution to society, the imprint that he has left on us, and his shaping of our way of seeing:&nbsp; how we think, the choices that we make, the path that we take.&nbsp;&nbsp;

His legacy lies in others modeling after him by leveraging creative pursuits as a means to re-architect society and culture.

Through his influence, Virgil the eternal optimist lives on.

“When creativity melds together with global issues, I believe you can bring the world together.... I’m an eternal optimist, so I fundamentally believe that the world can be better."
Virgil Abloh


p.s.

Virgil is not finished yet:

He has an album project called &ldquo;Off The Rip&rdquo; dropping soon.&nbsp;&nbsp;

;)

Virgil Abloh’s Final Bow at the Louis Vuitton Men's Fall-Winter 2022 Show In Dreamland

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