Yahoo Finance Louis Vuitton makes surfer chic luxe in men's SS18 show
If Kim Jones, Louis Vuitton's head of menswear, wanted to transport the audience to tropics for his spring/summer 2018 collection, the sweltering 37 degree in Paris (with a show inside a plastic roofed tent, no less) meant he was halfway there before the first model stepped out.
The designer is never happier than when on an airplane; after a childhood spent in Africa, Jones is zealous about all things travel and conservation related. Some designers cite Chanel, he cites David Attenborough, and his clothes are all the richer for it. After Kenyan forays and explorations in Tokyo, the designer this time looked to Australasia for a starting point, and specifically Easter Island, New Zealand and further on to Hawaii, and the closed-off culture of island life.
The models paraded as if fresh from the surf, hair in sodden tendrils over their faces, and nods to surf culture pervaded in the scuba shorts and tops and tops with the Vuitton logo re-imagined as some Billabong-style, rad sports shack lettering. The trinketry - coral necklaces and gaudy rings as if discovered at some beachside market, added to the idea of gap year discoveries in some antipodean fantasia.
That said, this is Louis Vuitton, and Kim Jones has a knack for elevating pockets of subculture to the heights called for at a Parisian luxury house. Double layered tops with prints depicting exotic fauna and unfurling orchids came shimmering and translucent, like some form of undulating sea life, while the elements of technical outerwear - trousers tied but elasticated cords at the ankle and festival-ready cagoules and rain macs, came in softest, flyaway silk.
When so many menswear designers retreat into the clothes themselves - debating how to modernise the suit being a recurring theme - it's refreshing to watch Kim Jones pack his bags and go off into the world; you never know what he might bring back.
