Louis Vuitton And Supreme Take Center Stage At Paris Fashion Week
- Words Nico Lazaro
- Date January 19, 2017
Luxury fashion houses and streetwear have long lived in separate worlds, but as young consumers continue to dominate both markets, brands from both sides of the fence have found themselves drawn into competition. The history of the Supreme and Louis Vuitton partnership can be traced back to a Supreme collection from 2000 in which Supreme mimicked LV’s signature monogram print and color patterns throughout the collection, resulting in an infamous cease-and-desist letter which only made the collection more collectible. LV’s current designer, Kim Jones, has said that his inspiration draws deeper than that, and that Supreme made a strong impression on him in college, when he worked at the distribution company Gimme 5 where he was responsible for repacking boxes of Supreme for the seminal, now defunct London streetwear shop The Hideout. While Michael Burke, chairman and CEO of LV has been credited for coming up with the idea, it was Jones who today unveiled its masterful execution.
As designer Marc Jacobs did for Louis Vuitton in 2001 with his graffiti-emblazoned collaboration with NY designer Stephen Sprouse, Jones looked again to New York City for F/W 17. This season the collection focused more on the style of the artists themselves, specifically Basquiat and his penchant for wearing luxurious clothing without care, and Andy Warhol, who inspired the use of Supreme’s staple camouflage within the collection.
The Supreme collaboration, developed over the past year, features sneakers, bags and accessories in Epi leather, as well as a full clothing line in a mashed-up LV x Supreme monogram pattern on chambray and camouflage. Included in the collection is a red and white monogram skateboard with a bespoke trunk and matching tool kit, a wry nod to the original LV-aping Supreme deck from 2000. In a press release, Jones announced the collaboration with Supreme, stating: “You can’t have the conversation of New York men’s wear without Supreme right now, because it’s such a massive global phenomenon...I just feel that the strength of their graphic versus the strength of the Louis Vuitton graphic, and that kind of Pop Art feeling — it works together perfectly.” We tend to agree with him.