How Virgil Abloh plans to revolutionize Louis Vuitton shows A new model that includes shows around the world without seasons

There was a period, coinciding with the early stages of the reopening in Italy, when numerous fashion houses, Gucci in the lead, announced historic changes in the show's calendars and their production policies – changes that highlighted the impression of complete chaos that reigns in the fashion world. Amid all the reformist fervour, the silence of the LVMH group's brands had appeared significant: but that silence has now ended.

Michael Burke and Virgil Abloh, respectively CEO and creative director of Louis Vuitton, announced in a long press conference a series of substantial changes that will involve the schedule and the way in which the brand will present its collections and that could affect, in a trickle-down effect, all the previous traditions of the fashion system. 

The Shanghai event, for example, will be organized by the Chinese division of the brand in collaboration with Virgil Abloh, and since the team that will organize and produce it will be Chinese, with a casting of Chinese models, the new format of the travelling show will be much more site-specific and inclusive than in the past: the Shanghai fashion show, for example, will be tailored to the needs and expectations of the Chinese market, as well as the Tokyo team will be designed entirely by the Japanese team and so on. "A much more modern way of working," commented Burke. 

There will also be some design innovations. The Shanghai show will feature new looks made from recycled materials, revisited looks from the Fall-Winter 2020 collection, looks freely created by the studio during lockdown, using recycled material, and new looks created by pre-existing ideas. Some of the existing designs will be replicated in different fabrics and from surplus stock. In the new garments, a new Louis Vuitton logo, the Upcycling Signal Logo, will also be introduced – effectively marking the synthesis between aesthetics and politics of a brand. The changes that will be seen will also be influenced by the way the new collection was designed – that is, digitally, via video-call among the members of the design team. It is unclear what the effects of the change will be in practice, but according to Abloh he said, they will be clearly visible: «The collection is now designed with the idea of it being broadcast on hundreds of thousands of screens, so that’s having an effect on the clothes.». 

And although the effects of coronavirus and lockdown have forced a reinterpretation of traditional dress codes, with less emphasis placed on the more sartorial and flailing plan of clothes, Abloh will continue his progressive work of rethinking the luxury categories, still insisting on the concept of "death of streetwear" enunciated for the first time at the end of last year: 

I want to urge the industry not to just focus on easy-to-sell garments that we know work commercially. The Nigo collection is a perfect example. We made a collection of tailoring that was useful. It wasn’t your dad’s suit, but it had traits more toward that. 

In the last few hours, the brand has unveiled a short movie that works as a prelude to the official presentation of the SS21 collection - entitled Message In A Bottle - which will be officially unveiled in Shanghai. The protagonists of the video, Zoooom with Friends, arrive in Paris for five intense days, sailing along the Seine leaving behind a rainbow trace to colour the sky of the French city. The video, directed by Abloh himself, animated by Reggie Know, and with a soundtrack curated by Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Terrace Martine and Kamasi Washington, is a fun, dreamlike and sometimes psychedelic dive into an imaginary populated by icons and symbols of the Maison, which manages to unite real and virtual in an unprecedented way.