NO hard feelings
Paris fashion star Abloh reaches out to Kanye West
Virgil Abloh paid tribute to his friend and longtime collaborator Kanye West as the US designer took star billing as Paris men’s fashion week began on Tuesday.
Relations between the pair have been tested since Abloh was named head of menswear at Louis Vuitton in Ma March, c , w with t t the rapper saying it was “hurtful” to lose his muse and erstwhile artisti artistic director.
West has ma made no secret of his own ambitions to lead a major luxury brand as a desig designer, and revealed last month that he h had also once been in talks with Lou Louis Vuitton’s owner, French fashion magnate Bernard Arnault.
Abloh – the s son of Ghanaian immigrants – sh showed off his own Off-White label in Paris on Wednesday after which he m made his debut bow with the world’s biggest luxury brand on Thursday.
As he put the finishing touches to his collections h he posted a photo of Kanye West to h his 2.3 million Instagram follower followers with legend, “The architect of it all.”
West’s wife Kim Kardashian respond responded with emojis of a heart an and two fires to signal her app approval. The rapper – who ha has his own Yeezy line for Adi Adidas – remained silent.
Black empowerment
But he told US radio star Charla Charlamagne tha God in a wide-r wide-ranging interview last month that there were no hard f feelings. “Th “These things are hurtful when you are working with a tale talent like... Virgil and some somebody comes through and s says ‘Bam! I am going to tak take Virgil.’ “T “There is some validation i in that someone that I cam came up with is now the h head [of menswear] of Lo Louis Vuitton,” West adde added. A Abloh, 38, is only the seco second black man to rise to the top of a big Pari Paris fashion house, with Fren French designer Olivier Rou Rousteing responsible for both Balmain’s men and womA women’s lines. As well as his nod to his form former employer, Abloh drop dropped hints on social med media that he was about to give the aristocratic Vuitton label a strong dose of black empowerment and street streetwear style. Vui Vuitton’s previous designe designer, Briton Kim Jones – who make makes his own debut for Dior Homm Homme on Saturday – often referenced Briti British colonial and safari chic in his cloth clothes. Abloh grew u up in Illinois where his seamstress mot mother taught him her trade as he studied engineering and later architecture. He has made it clear his clothes will be much more street.
He posted films on Instagram of cotton plants and ceramic neck chains, in what could be seen as references to slavery, as well as a Louis Vuitton record box inspired by hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash, “where you can put your coat in while DJing, shielding it from smoky clubs and spilled drinks.”
Celebrity fans
Abloh had worked hand in glove with West for more than 15 years. They designed clothes together on Photoshop and were $500-a-month interns under Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi in Rome in 2009 even though the rapper already had a string of Grammy awards under his belt.
West said that he only found out about Abloh taking over at Vuitton as the appointment was announced in March. “He [Abloh] made the call two minutes before it hit the Internet... He had told me he was looking at Versace too... but he knew he was going to Louis Vuitton,” he added.
West admitted days later in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that the news had weighed on him. “It’s not bad or good,” he said.
Abloh has built up a celebrity following at Off-White with high-profile collaborations with Nike, Jimmy Choo and Moncler. Such has been the buzz that fashionistas jostled each other to get into his show in Paris last March.
Not everyone, however, is sold on streetwear’s inexorable rise. New York Times critic Guy Trebay said a “lot of what turns up on the runways lately looks less designed than crowdsourced.”
The young German and Swedish brands CMMN SWDN and Gmbh kicked fashion week off on Tuesday evening after a dance show by choreographer Mathilde Monnier inspired by shoemaker J.M. Weston.
French label Pigalle also tried to rethink the catwalk by presenting its new collection during an hour-long music and dance show at one of the French capital’s most prestigious concert halls.