5 things to know about the Louis Vuitton SS20 show

The third day of Paris Fashion Week dedicated to the SS20 collections. The Louis Vuitton show and the collection created by Virgil Abloh are the eye-catchers, a bucolic hymn to equality and freedom, told by luxurious urban wear, emphasized by a beautiful colour palette and bizarre and sculptural bags reminiscent of kites.

Location

Paris. The historic Dauphine Square on Pont Neuf is turned into an idyllic version of Louis Vuitton's French capital made of lovely cafés and restaurants, benches decorated with LV monograms, ice cream and crepes carts, kiosks, inflatable castles, kites and balloons. All in shades of emerald green and red. It is a village festival that celebrates the work of Virgil Abloh.

Guest

Since Abloh has taken on the role of creative director of Louis Vuitton, the shows of the house are full of stars and celebrities friends of the designer. People like Blondey McCoy, Playboi Carti, Dev Hynes and Kid Cudi. This time the protagonist was the footballer Hector Bellerin who made his debut as a model wearing a fuchsia hoodie, matching shorts and sneakers. Along with him on the catwalk, the K-pop stars Song Minho, Keiynan Lonsdale, Delfin Finley, Evan Mock.

Front Row

In the front row applauding Vuitton's new collection there were Frank Ocean, Gigi Hadid, Skepta, Miguel, Swae Lee, Russell Westbrook, J Balvin, Karrueche Tran, Cam Newton, Lewis Hamilton, Joel Edgerton, Kris Wu, and Ben Harper, Maluma, Victor Cruz, Dan Carter, Gennadiy Golovkin, Gong Yoo, Shuhei Nomura, Nick Chou. 

The collection

Abloh continues to explore the concept of freedom, equality and social significance of the dress, as he writes in the notes introducing the new collection for LV:

Through all stages of growth, from childhood to adulthood, man's encounter with clothing and fashion is still influenced by social role. Our exploration of clothing codes is aimed at freeing clothes from those same codes dictated by social norms, gender conventions and cultural conduct. 

And he adds:

In the years saturated by images and digital data, going back to dwelling on the smell of a rose allows us to de-program the mind and create a new space for freedom of thought. 

The result is a combination of street style and high tailoring cuts that mix quilted hoodies, shorts, loose suits, denim pants and vests, trench coats, long shirts like djellaba, huge floating pants, oversized jackets. All declined in beautiful pastel shades next to accents of more intense colour. Everywhere flowers appear in a bucolic, cool and almost romantic mood.

The accessories

Flowers are the real protagonists of Louis Vuitton's SS20 collection. They bloom on clothes and accessories, creating pieces destined to become cult like the harness made famous by Timothée Chalamet that now looks like a beautiful flowery branch that embraces the body. Completing the bucolic-street look are straw hats, Cuban-inspired jewellery and bags that look like gardening baskets filled with wildflowers. Future top sellers will be, in addition to fanny packs and backpacks, the new monogram bags, characterized by rigid geometric shapes and pleated constructions; while the series of ultra-thin nylon bags, inflated before appearing on the catwalk, and the sets of bags and kites that seem to be a fashion homage to Craig Green, remain imprinted in the mind. Concerning shoes, colour-blocked sneakers alternate with cool and colourful LV versions of patent leather rain boots.