Since his inception as Mens Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton fashion’s arch disruptor, the talented Virgil Abloh, has been the talk of the fashion world. This morning, Abloh showed his Spring/ Summer 19 designs for Off-White, the streetwear powerhouse and fly-off-the-shelves brand, Virgil has propelled to stratospheric sales. Double denim, matching denim, more denim. Denim pulled over at the waistband like the jeans don’t fit – but they did. Black denim, multi-pocket denim. Denim in a floral print, denim with graffiti; bright primary-coloured denim. The glitzy, diamanté-strewn denim was a touch of brilliance! From ‘80s sleeveless detached hair-do heavy metal denim to ‘90s guitar wah-wah Madchester denim. It went on. Then phat denim and hip hop denim and, god, how long you got? It was a “timehop” tribute to the jeans and jean jackets and denim’s many many guises. It was as concise as it was tongue-in-cheek and clever to boot. There were boot-cut jeans as well… For the non-denim Dollar: amongst other things, a truly brilliant sweatshirt with a Bart Simpson print on the front: “I’m Bart Simpson”, said the speech bubble “who the hell are you?” The trainers: old school – were they Cortez? Passing past we thought so. Time to revisit that Nike archive, say us. Just ace. And then shoes: a black basic lace-up with those Off-White house-code plastic tabs we know from the super-successful trainers Abloh is so good at. And then shoes? Shoes! Shoes? Are they on their way back? No, seriously, this could be a bit of a moment. Remember: what Virgil hints at happens next… shoes!!! Cracking stuff.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
