virgil abloh designs wearable cityscape jackets as part of louis vuitton men's FW 2021 show

louis vuitton has presented its fall-winter 2021 menswear collection by virgil abloh within a space inspired by the barcelona pavilion — a building designed in 1929 by mies van der rohe and lily reich. the building’s material constructions and combinations informed aspects of the set created for the show with abloh noting that ‘mies is my other michael jordan’. as part of the presentation, which can be seen in full at the top of this page, abloh — who was appointed artistic director of louis vuitton’s menwear collection in 2018 — designed a pair of puffer jackets that feature a selection of recognizable architectural projects.

all images © louis vuitton

conceived as ‘wearable miniature cityscapes’, these jackets allude to virgil abloh’s education in architecture, allowing the wearer to ‘move freely within his city confinement.‘ the ‘paris skyline puffer jacket’ presents the architecture of the french capital, with elements from the notre-dame cathedral, the louvre, and the eiffel tower all incorporated. the second jacket, titled the ‘new york city skyline puffer jacket’ features skyscrapers from a variety of cities, including new york and chicago — abloh’s hometown.

captured between paris and a village in the swiss mountains, the production is thematically informed by james baldwin’s seminal essay ‘stranger in the village’ from 1953 through a series of performances expressed in dance, ice skating, poetry and scenography. the film features a cast including kandis williams, tosh basco, saul williams, yasiin bey, black cracker, and steven sowah.

‘in ‘stranger in the village’, baldwin draws parallels between his experiences as an african-american visitor in the swiss mountain village of leukerbad in the 1950s — the only person of color — and his life as a black citizen of america,’ explains the show notes. ‘it deals with the experience of being recognized and gazed upon as different, illegible, even alien. emblematic of this circumstance, ‘stranger in the village’ also illuminates the experience of being black in europe, and being a black artist in the birthplace of european art. the performance embodies the physical confrontations with the psychological conflflicts explored in baldwin’s essay.’

over three acts, an original score created for the presentation by asma maroof paints a musical portrait of forbidden landscapes. spoken words written and performed by saul williams interact with harps before evolving into atmospheric strings. meanwhile, the soundscape crescendos into jazz and sub bass crowned by a performance by yasiin bey.

watch the film in full at the top of the page.

project credits:

peculiar contrast, perfect light
a film by virgil abloh and ‘moved by the motion’
starring yasiin bey, saul williams and kai isaiah jamal

film directed by: wu tsang
show creative director and performance choreography by: josh johnson
story adapted by: sophia al maria
movement direction by: tosh basco
dramaturgy and scenography by: kandis williams
original film score by: asma maroof
musical direction and production by: asma maroof and benji b
LV men’s music and sound direction by: benji b
styling by: ibrahim kamara
set design: playlab
graphic design: marco fasolini
art direction and research leads: mahfuz sultan and chloe sultan
artist managed by: nadja rangel qani at outofocus management
visual direction: lina kutsovskaya and begood

music
harp: ahya simone
saxophone & flute: tapiwa svosve
cello & piano: patrick belaga
drums: mathieu edward
additional music production by: daniel pineda
additional poetry by: kai isaiah jamal

casting by: samuel ellis scheinman piergiorgio del moro for dm casting assisted by arthur mejean and alejandra perez
styling by: ibrahim kamara, assisted by felix paradza and mark mutyamizi
hair: guido palau
make-up: ammy drammeh
fashion services: by KCD

actors
thelma buabeng, steven sowah, black cracker, caleb femi

dancers
ablaye diop, ambroise mendy, andre atangana, clyde archer, corey-scott gilbert, henry meshach, justin kennedy, malik le nost, marquet lee, prince credell, ruben-karl noel, samuel pereira, jazmon voss, luis alberto rodriguez

ice skaters
samory ba, leevan dos santos lopes, yannick bonheur, tom bouvart, zabato bebe, cedric phebidias

ensemble cast
adama konate, alois cotti, arthur kopp, augustin, baptiste faure, barry abdoulaye, daniel dikoume, david ge, djily kamara, eddie (navarone cole), elyas polat, emmanuel adjaye, felix cheong-macleod, goya gumbani, guillaume de saint phalle, henry makuntima, hyun jae, isidore lombardo, ismael savane, jason francis, jean philipp rinklif, jean-jacques n’joly, jodeci, julius francis, kai isaiah jamal, karl kadima, larry vickers, levi mankessi, mahamadou diaoune, mamadou diagne, marc jean, matthieu mendy, maurits pool, maxime frenel, momo (mouhamed) ndiaye, morgan doughty, moustapha koite, moustapha sy, najib abdi, omar mohamed sesay, omari phipps, ottawa kwami, ruben de baecke, senne pluym, shawn lun, solal, tobi amao, toumane bjadi, vassili schneider, yuuki, zineddine el ouazzani, thilo garus, tobias lee christensen, graziano capitta, ekil said quani, manuchter milani

video production: kitten
head of production: romain blanquet
film producer: camille petrilli
line producer: ségolène vial