In Kim Jones’ third effort for the Louis Vuitton Men’s Collection, he presented a clean collection that balanced sharp tailoring opposite playful spins on proportion to create a range of clothing that has broad based appeal for the modern practitioner of luxe living. The LV man for Spring 2013 is part yachtsman, part power broker, part weekend athlete but wholly fashionable.
Upon entering the show space, the LCD runway cut a technological swath through the otherwise minimal room. As the show began, the runway transformed in color & texture to suit the mood of the grouping being shown to great effect. Even the most traditional parts of the collection looked reinvented & altogether modern in this setting.
The runway wasn’t the only dash of modernity that was amping up this season’s offerings. Technical fabrications & novel plays on traditional proportions in voluminous outerwear options & several full leg trousers were the more obvious talking points, but the updates ran far deeper than simply surface & many would be missed on a cursory glance. Jones is obviously a devotee of the detail (my heart pounds!) & he applied one at every opportunity. Whether it was the fit of the soft shoulder of his jackets, devoid of the traditional roped roll one would expect, or a traditional summer fabrication of seersucker in a blazer, but in this case done in saturated, inky plaids rather than the classic stripe, or the pops of color in the bag hardware that evoked references to the now legendary Sprouse graffiti bags of the early Jacobs era at the house, the details abounded.
Perhaps the only misstep of the season, & trust me, it was minor, was that the styling details were a bit precious in scale for the runway. Novel lapel pins in neon bright coral as well as stitched & beaded breast pocket detailing were incredibly interesting, lending a sort of other-worldly/multi-cultural feel when employed, but on an LCD runway, from ones seat 3 meters away, the true specialness of the detail was none to few aside from the wearer. But in rapid retrospect, isn’t the true mark of luxury just this? Perhaps Jones instinctively comprehends the requirements of the genre within which he creates.
-Scott French
Designer website: www.louisvuitton.com
