Louis Vuitton's Pampered City Warriors
Though it was frequently hard to detect the alleged inspiration of the latest men's runway show from Louis Vuitton - the house's Men's Studio and Style Director Kim Jones said it was the intertwined mythologies of Paris and Tokyo - that still did not prevent this being a highly accomplished collection by a designer who is clearly hitting his stride at France's most profitable luxury brand.
Staged Thursday, Jan. 19, in Vuitton's preferred runway venue for menswear - the soaring modernist greenhouse of eastern Paris' Parc Andre Citroen - the show opened with a trio of double face, belted cashmere coats that looked more apt apparel for a Hollywood matinee idol than hipster Antonio Lopez - one of the first Western fashion illustrators whose work was exhibited in Japan - and another inspiration.
There was a charming Japanese pattern swirling through mink "rope" scarves and some finely made silk kimono shirts. Plus, Jones has cleverly moved the whole Vuitton's menswear image upmarket, and smartly stepped away from this predecessor Paul Helbers' obsession with street cool - like the much mocked "bicycle messengers" show of two years ago, which seemed far distant from Vuitton's DNA based on luxury travel.
Moreover, the British-born designer really wowed with his adroit use of the house's various logos - especially a trio of wool coats and jerkins made in magnified LV lettering that were faultlessly cut and wrapped insouciantly in huge scarves. Pinned on with long silver stakes, this flawless piece of styling earned Jones the ultimate compliment: the house's creative director Marc Jacobs, sitting front row, said excitedly in a manner that was clearly meant to be lip-read by the audience, "Beautiful!"
In terms of cutting, suit silhouette and choice of high-tech sportswear, however, this was largely formulaic display - and seemed rather modest compared to the frequently spectacular tailoring seen in last weekend's Italian menswear shows in Milan. Still, Jones has a certain sense of what can be both cool and classy simultaneously in fashion, a talent that suggests he could have a long reign in Vuitton men's division. He is also an intuitively able stylist, whose use of feather decoration and masculine knitwear was great throughout.
His key material in this show was astrakhan, a fur whose central Asia origins are located thousands of miles from either Paris or Tokyo. Jones used a pearly gray astrakhan with gutsy panache in some fantastic new bovver boots with silver sides and toes before employing the skin with aplomb as side panels of excellent new weekend bags.
