March 23, 2023 |
At its outset, the LV Trainer was designed by the late and great Virgil Abloh and appeared on the SS19 Louis Vuitton runway – his very first outing as men’s art director at the heritage house. An utterly iconic model, it combined basketball shoe sensibilities with a fierce commitment to luxury, cementing it as a mainstay with mythical status amongst sneaker junkies. Now, the eminent style is getting a graffiti-style facelift as part of Louis Vuitton’s inaugural “White Canvas: LV Trainer In Residence” initiative, which extended a bold invitation to three pioneers of the 1980s underground street art scene. Bestowed with total freedom of expression, the low white leather-upper version of the sneaker becomes a blank canvas, and interpreted by the selected trio of famous creators, three hand-painted limited editions of the sneaker galvanise in vanguard spirit.
First up is Ecuadorian muralist Lady Pink, who, born in 1964, is a neoteric of the graffiti movement and considered a cult artist of the hip hop community. Her brick and mortar LV Trainers come illustrated by colourblocked crimsons and pure whites, accented by a plain print of a run-of-the-mill brick wall. Lee Quiñones gave his hand next. Born in 1960 in Puerto Rico, he is renowned for painting gigantic frescos throughout New York City subway stations and even directly onto train cars. Often considered the first creator to bring street art above ground by signing the first-ever mural of a handball court, his LV Trainer is gilded, a simple white kick dipped in gold. The final player is the late painter, sculptor, performer and visual artist Rammellzee (1960-2010). Born in Queens NYC, he gave life to a cosmogony of colourful characters, costumes, paintings and sculptures, and now, despite his indivision, a spray-painted LV Trainer has been concocted in his image.
Produced in partnership with Sky Gellatly, CEO and co-founder of ICNCLST/, a creative marketing and art management agency, the residency programme stems from an idea the visionary Virgil Abloh had. Prior to his passing, Abloh asked Gellatly to organise the initiative “in order to pay tribute to a cohort of artists, first as part of an exhibition, then to expand access to their works through the prism of collaborative sneakers”. So, each enigmatic sneaker has been unveiled as part of an immersive exhibition at the Louis Vuitton pop-up store in Milan, inside the Garage Traversi (the first fully automated car garage in Italy). From now until May 16, surrounded by barren cement walls, low spotlighting and additional multimedia installations co-signed by the same triptych of contemporary artists, the “White Canvas“ LV Trainers will be on display. It’d be remiss not to mention that a swift trip to Italy might be in the books for us since the space is the exclusive point of sale for the collectors’ kicks. What can we say? It is truly a testament of sneakerhead heaven.
Photography courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
