Louis Vuitton menswear’s Message in a Bottle bound for Shanghai

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jul 10, 2020

Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest ideas for menswear on Friday afternoon, with a video that began in its historic Asnières workshop north of Paris, even as the house promised to take the collection on the road – all the way to China.

Entitled Message in a Bottle, the concept is to gradually unveil in chapters, a new format invented by the house’s men’s Artistic Director Virgil Abloh, which he said emphasized his “core values of diversity, inclusivity and unity.” Though the clip is brand new, the actual collection is often made from upcycling fresh looks from recycled materials.

The video was one of 68 to be shown over the five-day Paris menswear season, which began on Thursday and, due to the pandemic, is an entirely digital season, with no live shows.

This first 3:45 minute glimpse had a comical touch, beginning with two youthful movers in pale blue overalls that read 'Equipe LV' carrying a large box marked 'Pont Neuf Ideation & Global Logistic Corporation,' referring to LV’s central Paris headquarters.

After placing them in a truck, a gang of cartoon rockers appear, and start driving the lorry away, the chauffeur attired in a bold black and white monogram check suit with LV rosette. A lion with elements of the LV monogram print quatrefoil eyes rides shotgun. This caravanserai of articulated trucks then begins a long journey through the Louvre, past the Pompidou Center; around the Arc de Triomphe before being loaded on to barges and taken down the Seine. 

Making it to Pont Neuf to crack open a bottle of champagne in front of LVMH’s soon-to-open luxury Cheval Blanc hotel inside the old La Samaritaine,  the cute cartoon cast take their bow; all of them in playful versions of the monogram. And backed up by a great soundtrack courtesy of The SA-RA Creative Partners  - Taz Arnold, Shafiq Husayn and Om’Mas Keith.

Abloh, who joined Louis Vuitton in 2018, entitled the video, 'The adventures of Zoooom with friends.' It ends with a green Vuitton dragon flying inside a Vuitton trunk  that reads 'V.A.A.' on top, and LV Global on the side. A collab’ with animation director Reggie Know, and seven storyboard artists, the clip provided a lighthearted beginning to this novel LV voyage.

“By taking his show to sea, Virgil Abloh embraces the global community of Louis Vuitton and meets his clients in their own parts of the world. Throughout its voyage – which may add destinations along the way – the collection will transform in an evolving exchange across cultures and nations. It is a free and inclusive dialogue between the House and its audiences, which transcends the traditional rules of fashion and seasonality,” Vuitton said in a release.

The first port of call will be Shanghai on August 6, with an all-Chinese cast. And a final stop is planned for Tokyo, where LV has opened its first stand-alone menswear store.