Virgil Abloh Shares Pics of His LV² Collaboration With Nigo

When Virgil Abloh announced his Louis Vuitton collaboration with Nigo in December, he gave props to the Japanese streetwear pioneer. “Me being at Louis Vuitton is directly attributable to work Nigo’s done in the past,” Abloh said. “A collab project with him—it puts his work in the right context.”

The French luxury goods house famously partnered with Supreme in 2017, when Kim Jones was still LV’s menswear designer, but this hookup is different. There are no logos for Nigo’s brand, Human Made, on these clothes and accessories. In fact, there’s not much streetwear in the collection at all. “Let’s not do the expected,” is how Abloh characterized the interaction between himself and his mentor and friend.

That rings true with a statement Abloh made in an interview Dazed published shortly after the Louis Vuitton and Nigo project was announced. “I would definitely say it’s gonna die, you know? Like, its time will be up,” was how Abloh summed up streetwear’s fate at the time. As offhand as the comment was (see below), it stirred up quite a lot of internet talk in the industry and beyond. Three months later, Abloh has some new thoughts on the topic. He shared them, along with photos of his collaboration with Nigo, exclusively with Vogue.

Tell me about your friendship with Nigo.

He’s among the first real mentors I had in fashion. Since my trajectory was different, had I been a quote, unquote traditional designer, I might’ve gone to New York and apprenticed under Donna Karan. But since streetwear is a new genre of fashion design, those earliest mentors, the Yves Saint Laurent or Balenciaga of streetwear, it’s Nigo, it’s James Jebbia, who founded Supreme. They took what was organically happening within culture—skate and street brands—and they made hard-core brands from that.

Nigo, I was fortunate over 15 years ago to have met him in Japan. He took us under his wing and showed us the ropes of how he was building the brand A Bathing Ape at the time.

What was the process of working with him like?

We met in his studio [in Tokyo]. He has a completely vertical fashion brand with Human Made. In one building, he designs, does the photo shoot, does the manufacturing. I was impressed by that. We had subsequent meetings in my studio in Paris. They were really hands-on. Our strongpoint is the art direction of the concept. What people might be most surprised by is that for two guys known for streetwear history and ability, the collection is completely the opposite. That was our starting point: Let’s not do the expected. Let’s not put streetwear in a box. That’s the epiphany within the collaboration.

You’re doing a lot of tailoring together.

Yeah. If you were to say our names and that we’re doing something at Louis Vuitton, you would almost be able to predict it. But to me fashion with a capital F, it’s supposed to take you on a journey, to lead. Last fall I did an interview where a quote was taken out of context; my sentiment was that streetwear will die.

Virgil Abloh says streetwear is dead. It was the quote heard around the fashion world…

I’m such a novice; I don’t realize that things can even go that far. I’m a little bit naive in that way. It was literally me in my kitchen just riffing on what I’d been thinking. I didn’t say it to be polarizing. I think that in the context of this conversation with Nigo—if you speak to anyone that’s been in streetwear for the last 15 years, it’s always had this sort of nine lives, dying and coming back, and dying and coming back. There’s so many first-generation streetwear brands, stores, and retailers. The market wasn’t as vibrant as it is now, so they went out of business and people don’t remember those. Nigo has had projects before; he’s had many a brand, many identities within streetwear. Partially what I meant that “it will die” is that new things like tailoring from guys like Nigo and me will be born from the regeneration of it.

Back to the collaboration. You’ve put the LV Damier check to good use. It’s not something you’ve touched on yet, right?

A hundred percent. I thought this was a perfect project to do things like that. The mood of the collection started off with our appreciation for the U.K. dandy and the mod era, Savile Row tailoring. That gave us the silhouette; but when it came to adding our own texture within the silhouette, that was very much using the codes of the house.

When I think of Japan, I think of denim. You’ve done some amazing things with the material here.

What the Japanese are known for is great archiving and reinterpretations of Americana. Nigo has one of the most formidable collections; he has some of the very early Lee and Levi’s pieces that were ever found. His personal style, he’s a true connoisseur. He buys his suits on Savile Row. He goes for the experience, the custom bespoke nature of it. Also, his personal collection of denim! When it was a matter of developing these pieces, I thought that was the most authentic [thing], using him as a muse.

So, his influence is in the bags?

He had this brand called Ice cream with this drippy signature. I thought, What if we made that playfulness a little more serious and merged it with the Louis Vuitton signature?

And I see you’ve done a hooded bomber with Mount Fuji on the back.

We would do those pieces in our sleep. But we didn’t want the collection to be 100% that. My program at Louis Vuitton, the overarching vision is father to son. So, having a portion of more mature pieces with youthful pieces.

Let’s talk about the LV² label. Is it only applicable to you and Nigo, or is it a new logo for you plus somebody else going forward?

It’s something for Nigo and me specifically. It’s like a new rap group. Nigo came up with the name of LV². We were from outside having an opinion and just styling it. Now we’re inside designing it and styling it.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from Nigo?

It’s a sense of detail, a Japanese precision. But also generosity. He’s extremely heartfelt. I’m American and I work a lot in Europe. In Paris fashion can be cutthroat. It can have this manic feeling. In America it’s very workhorse. Working with him and having him in the studio, seeing his disposition and how he was thinking of the challenge of making tailoring, of how to refine all these ideas, he did it in a very respectful, calm, polite, but very precise way.

So is it really just a one-off?

Yeah, but as we’ve finally finished, there’s already been talks that this could be an ongoing logic. I think both sides are open to it, so I wouldn’t rule out that other things could come. I can say the future will involve a way of activating this collection, when it comes time to release, that will be more immersive than just simply putting it out into stores. We both have a passion for eventizing these moments. It’s not just the clothes, it’s the context.

Source: Vogue

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Pre-Fall 2020 Menswear Louis Vuitton

For a guy as collab-happy as Virgil Abloh—last month the Louvre released images of the collection he created for its Leonardo da Vinci exhibition—his Louis Vuitton tenure has been remarkably light on partnerships. Abloh says that’s intentional. “I wanted to start off without collaborations, so people could see my point of view on the brand,” he explains. But 18 months after his debut, LV’s artistic director of menswear is ready to commit. Abloh has exclusively shared with Vogue that he’s teamed up with his friend Nigo, the Japanese streetwear pioneer and founder of A Bathing Ape, on a capsule collection to be released mid-2020.

“Me being at Louis Vuitton is directly attributable to work Nigo’s done in the past,” Abloh reflects. “A collab project with him—it puts his work in the right context. He inspired me to do what I do. I thought it was a full-circle moment.” Indeed, when Abloh was hired at Vuitton, Nigo called it “a victory for our team, the streetwear crowd.”

There are no pictures of the collaboration just yet, but if Abloh’s latest collection for the Paris house is any indication, the capsule will be heavy on logos. For pre-fall, fanny packs feature supersize LVs in an unfinished embroider-by-numbers design and the familiar canvas monogram has been disrupted with what look like streaks of colorful tape, only rendered in inlaid leather. “Only at a house like LV can you take a quote-unquote student idea and make it trompe l’oeil into beautifully crafted versions,” Abloh says.

As for the clothes, Abloh put his fingerprints on the famous monogram in any number of ways: enlarging it on a mink bomber and cotton separates, mashing it up with camouflage and jacquard, and quilting it onto lightweight puffer jackets. The surprise is Abloh’s new tailoring, which has a more to-the-body, even formal silhouette. “When I started at Louis Vuitton I was interested in relaxed luxury, oversized, [the idea] that luxury didn’t need to be stiff, and I’ve made that point,” he says. In other words, we should expect more of these streamlined fits on his fall 2020 runway next month. And the famous mid-layer garments, too. Abloh says they’re connecting with customers beyond the red carpet. “They reinforce my goal of defining a silhouette.”

Source: Vogue

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Off-White Spring 2020 Menswear

The opening look and most of the closing, women’s included, at this Off-White show were made in collaboration with the New York artist Futura—aka Lenny McGurr. His vivid spray strokes and sleekly alien Pointman figure were incorporated as print or jacquard into suiting, soft trenches, cycling vests, denim, a blanket, and evening dresses. As Virgil Abloh sketched it in his long sentences backstage: “In his lifetime, and in the culture that we come from, which is a segment of hip-hop and graffiti, [his work] started out being seen as a form of vandalism, not art. . . . But as well as painting on the side of subway trains, he was part of the scene and showed with Basquiat and Keith Haring. . . . . He was on what was once thought of as the fringe. . . . but now, through time, we can see that the beauty of Basquiat is also the beauty of Lenny, Futura.”

That transition from the counterculture—the fringe—to become both the subject of establishment acclaim and an agent of change within the establishment mirrors Abloh’s own path: In the 10 years since he was photographed by Tommy Ton with Kanye West and crew outside Comme des Garçons, Abloh has completed the full loop. But reflecting on the longer span of Futura’s journey—combined with his own recent project curating his past body of work for the “Figures of Speech” exhibition in Chicago—has made Abloh consider a bigger picture. “When I make things, I look at it on a scale of 30 years. What gives the esteem and the energy . . . I know the work has to mean something now, but I’m also thinking about what it means when you zoom out.”

There was certainly a sense of space in time in some of this collection. Its span of reference was broad but as legibly interconnected as the branding on the new Nike Dunk, codesigned with Futura, that made its debut on Abloh’s carnation-field runway. The chain-link fence pattern on bags, jackets, and a semitransparent poncho played nicely against the densely hand-knit sweaters that bore patches declaring membership in the “Off-White climbing club.”

Climbing was not only this collection’s second big theme—reflected in the drawstrings worked into suiting, the technical luggage, and the nylon patched knit faux fleeces—but it was also part of the broader metaphor at play. A sky blue suede trench with detachable front pockets, a double-layered floral-print down jacket and shorts, a chain-link knit off-white shirt and shorts, plus the recut denim template workwear in washed and treated technical fabrics were all highly polished and finished pieces. Conversely, the tie-dyed cargo pants (sometimes crystal set) and denim, the bandana-patched T-shirts, those dense knit sweaters, and bleached flannel shirting were all designed to appear roughened and weathered.

In a piece of tape played before the show, Bjork spoke about the “spaced-outness” of perspective, nurtured through the landscape of Iceland, that helped her learn songwriting. Abloh seems to be in search of a similar panoramic point of view—an apex position—and the topography of the clothes he is producing as he makes that ascent is benefiting from it.

Source: VOGUE

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