Paris, France
Louis Vuitton’s artistic director Virgil Abloh reflects back on his architecture background to create unique skyscraper puffer jackets as part of the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2021 show in Paris.
“Wearable miniature skyscrapers” is really part fashion, part architectural marvel and part brilliant for social distancing in a crowded space.
Abloh, who’s trained in architecture and worked in a firm two years before starting his own label, Off-White, dressed the models in two iconic landmarks.
One model is wearing the jacket that features French landmarks such as the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower; while the New York City jacket features buildings from New York and other cities like the John Hancock Center (which is located in Abloh’s hometown of Chicago).
“The building’s material constructions and combinations informed aspects of the set created for the Fall-Winter 2021 presentation. ‘Mies is my other Michael Jordan’,” wrote Abloh in the presentation notes.
Abloh was referring to modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was well-known in the 1940s to 50s for his contribution to architecture.
A film of the show features American rapper and actor Saul Williams walking through an abstract city made of green marble, where he interacts with models wearing items from the collection.
In one scene Williams enters a large room where two models stand on plinths dressed in puffer jackets covered in 3D models of buildings.
Reflecting the fact that the physical show took place in Paris where Abloh lives, one model was wearing a piece called the Paris skyline puffer jacket, which was adorned with models of the city’s best-known buildings.
The jacket has the Notre-Dame cathedral on its front along with models of other historic buildings, including a red version of the Eiffel Tower, the Arch de Triumph and the Panthéon.
The look also included two modern buildings – Chinese-American architect IM Pei’s Le Grand Louvre pyramid and a section of the Centre Pompidou designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano.
Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuittton 3D Skyscraper Jackets
Designer: Virgil Abloh
Manufacturer: Louis Vuitton
