Swiss curator and art critic Simon Njami opened the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer ’25 menswear show with a sermon for the next generation. “The world is yours,” he appeared to tell a room of youngsters. It was a rather unusual way to launch, but certainly it could do us well to listen. LVSS25 takes this messaging further through the medium of the maison’s apparel, shoes, bags and accessories.
In broad strokes, the Pharrell Williams-led collection (his third full-length one for Louis Vuitton) saw the creative director compound on the notion of identity. This time, instead of geo-targeting a specific country (remember the Western basis of his FW24 showing and the Pont Neuf locale for his SS24 debut?), the multi-hyphenate opted for a global approach, literally. Think green-and-blue atlas prints, plastered across bombers and shirts; which also inform the season’s colour palette for the malletier’s Damier motif found across a plethora of leather goods including the reinvented Speedy.
This global ideology expanded as Williams and the Louis Vuitton atelier reminded the audience of the maison’s commitment to travellers, no matter where they hailed from. Rehashing its origins as trunk-makers for those on-the-go, the house sought to craft dandy uniforms for globetrotters of every sort. This allowed the creative director to touch on diversity in more ways than one. Off the bat, there were degrees of nude that colour the season’s offerings, a reverential design collaboration with Air Afrique that acknowledges the African Diaspora, as well as references to universally appreciated sports (such as soccer, or football, or whatever it’s called in your preferred version of English).
Beyond that, the art of the voyage was commodified by the house as reissues of heritage bags taking on the names of iconic rivers. Aircraft motifs were incorporated into accessories, and historic travel gear, while flight suits and aerodynamically sound furs got programmed into Pharrell Williams’ vision for the SS25 season. Because in accordance to the chief commander of the new fashion world, the world is yours, any way you want it.
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