Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 2022 Spin-Off Show Arrives in Bangkok
The collection reflects the practice of circularity in Virgil Abloh’s designs and the epitome of youth.
As an ode to Virgil Abloh’s arcs: the coming-of-age premise, the global perspective, and the cycle of creativity, Louis Vuitton decided to showcase his final collection for Fall/Winter 2022 at a second location in Bangkok. Previously shown in Paris, the spin-off show in Bangkok unveils nine unseen looks from its last presentation in January.
Similar to its first presentation, the show is conceived in a Louis Dreamhouse, a surrealist and fantasy-like sphere where the house is built upside down, with instruments suspended from the ceiling, floating around planetarily, and an enormous sun orbiting.
The dreamy and ethereal set is in tandem with the playful spirit of the collection. Models were seen traversing in circular passages, creating an illusion of circularity. This show embraced the many facets of Abloh’s iconic references, from cartoon characters to the music inspired by his fascination with youth.
This collection marks the eighth and final arc of the Men’s Artistic Director. Accompanying the runway show is a cinematic prelude—I Dream of You, as a tribute to Abloh’s Boyhood Ideology: seeing the world with the unspoiled eyes of a child.
This core ideology is lived through the lens of director Sivaroj Kongsakul, where the story follows the formative experiences of an 11-year-old boy in the surroundings of rural Thailand, a childhood memory of the filmmaker. Essentially, the Boyhood Ideology is deeply rooted in the collection’s theme of childhood imagination, tearing up and breaking the walls of dress codes tied to societal archetypes.
In a recording from 2019 played before the show, Abloh said, “We might go to India or Kansas or Cuba, but wherever we go the focus is youth: the stage in your life before you’ve been taught or programmed to do, think or wear certain things. And in that study, you realize that teenagers on opposite sides of the world are dealing with the same things. It reflects the fact that, fundamentally, we are all one."
To Abloh, youth is global and it should live on forever.
