Last year, Virgil Abloh debuted his first collection at Louis Vuitton, serving as the creative director for menswear. This was a crucial point for him and the brand. He is the first black designer at the brand and his street, irreverent and sporty style is very unexpected for this prestigious and luxury brand. Kim Jones refreshed the brand taking it out from their comfort zone and introducing a juvenile look to the collections with his famous collaborations, just to mention, in 2016 with the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, a mix between the classic Louis Vuitton monogram and drawings of wild animals; and with supreme on 2017, bright red bags with a white monogram were one of his most famous and best-seller collections.
We were waiting for something different, and he did it in the best way: the collection was inspired in the Wizard of Oz and included a rainbow runway, bold, monochromatic, bright, and colorful looks, floral prints, and strong silhouettes. In honor of his success, the brand celebrated that his collection is now in the stores with special windows and a Pop-up residence.
As everybody waited for the clothes to make it from the runway to store, Louis Vuitton opened a SS19 Residency pop-up at the first floor of the Chrome Hearts store in Soho New York, where the customers were able to appreciate directly and buy part of the collection and some exclusive pieces by Abloh. Decorated with an urban style, packed of wood transportation boxes, concrete floor and monochromatic mannequins that harmonized the perfect skin color with the clothes, huge classic monogram Vuitton trunks and one-of-one dining table embossed with the Louis Vuitton monogram that was sold for at least of $150.000 dollars.
Besides the New York “Residency”, to pay tribute to the designer, all the windows around the world are displaying technicolor skies, fields of flowers, and the yellow brick roads. But at their flagships on New York’s Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles they have oversized sculptures that literally stop passers-by on the streets. These figures, which feature fitting neon hues, actually stand inside the store, but they create an optical illusion that extends to the street and throughout the store. Now, the collection is available at the stores and surely is going to be a huge success, but now, let’s take a look of how the windows look and some of the amazing creative process of the visual merchandising team at Louis Vuitton, that without a doubt is blowing our minds away.
