Show Report
This offering again successfully balanced the function with covetable luxury and remained within a context of travel - be it urban travel.
Entitled the 'Gentlemen Butterflies' studio director Paul Helbers took inspiration from bike messengers of New York City for the spring / summer Louis Vuitton collection. On a sparkly catwalk of grey sand, bearded boys stormed the catwalk in a collection that fused luxury with a sporty sensibility. New York taxi cab yellow punctuated a collection of predominantly grey hues and mutations of beige. The key message of the show and the re-occuring silhouettes were calf length coats worn over casual rolled-up shorts. Cardigans were also sported with knee length shorts as were suit jackets and refined biker jackets. A rubber coat and a variety of synthetically formed garments ensured the collection remained challenging and preventing Louis Vuitton from being rooted in traditional menswear. Vuitton's desirabitity is characterised by its ability to fuse function with covetable luxury and this offering again successfully balanced the two and remained within a context of travel - be it urban travel. Futuristic fabrics and panelling in suit jackets pushed the collection through technical expertise but the most successful looks were those that looked less over-worked and more wearable. Navy was the colour choice for suiting and accessories shone in many ways including lurex bowties, metallic shoes, fluorescent buttons on jacket cuffs and neon heels on pointy shoes. Incase the bike messengers reference seemed somewhat abstract other accessories, including bracelets and belts were made of bike chains and LV'd in irridescent blue and green. Interestingly the PR machine are so apt at communicating the much lauded VIPs in attendance (several new actors and The Black Eyed Peas - a brunette Fergie perkerly flashing the LV sign with her 4 fingers) that incase the tainted press can't recognise them - they hand out sheets with their mug shots on. A journalist's dream!
