While many fashion houses aim to take the funky road less traveled when it comes to their menswear collections, Louis Vuitton revisits classic silhouettes but updates them with bold colors and minimal but effective styling. Style director Kim Jones stays true to his commitment to incorporating an African aesthetic in his work, with bright hues of red and royal blue inspired by a Masai blanket in his personal collection at home.
Still the collection manages to take a turn for the WASP-y. We are bombarded by ascots, quilted jackets, cuffed tailored pants, and origami sandals you might only see on a warm day at the country club.
The collection offers more relaxed looks in the realm of high-end athletic wear (so to speak), taking our prepster “Conrad” from the country club lounge to its freshly painted tennis court.
The African inspiration Kim Jones said would permeate his collections for Louis Vuitton is translated as predictably as I thought. It is the blue blood on safari, the wealthy London business man stepping into South Africa to see what profit he might make on such rich soil. As clean as the looks are, it would be nice to see a collection whose African aesthetic goes beyond the superficial and predictable.
~Jihan
June 30, 2011 12:57 pm
Jihan your summary paragraph thetruth.com
June 30, 2011 1:35 pm
I am in agreement with Jihan as well! Great post and keep up the good work.
June 30, 2011 1:41 pm
Great work Jihan!
XO,
Lucija
withlovelucija.blogspot.com
June 30, 2011 4:34 pm
I would also like to see LV take on a less predictable inspired by African tribes and safari look.Thats been overdone .How about draw inspiration from the rising middle classes of Nigeria ,Kenya etc?That is what major African designers are doing now like Jewel By Lisa ,Tsemaye Binitie and more.
June 30, 2011 4:48 pm
I’ve seen it all before. Looks like gap x prada/bright colors.
July 1, 2011 5:02 am
the red scraf /shawl won is by the maasai tribes of east africa…I think it looks dope