Style superstar Virgil Abloh produced one of
the big moments at Paris men’s fashion week Wednesday when he had Gigi Hadid
walk through a field of white carnations at his Off White show.
The black American creator — one of the hottest talents in fashion right
now, who also heads Louis Vuitton’s menswear line — brought a host of stars
to his front row.
Columbian singer Maluma rubbed shoulders with Formula One driver Lewis
Hamilton and Chinese K pop star Li Wen Han to see Hadid close the show wearing
an oversized white tuxedo adorned with abstract expressionist designs by the
legendary New York graffiti artist Futura.
Abloh, the first African American to head a major French label, used the
veteran artist’s work to great effect throughout his brightly-coloured spring
summer collection.
Field of carnations
US rapper Sheck Wes opened the show in another Futura-decorated white
ensemble, with one of the artist’s sculptures called “Nosferatu” looming out
of the field of white blossoms Abloh had transplanted inside a converted
market in central Paris.
His army of models trampled the carnations — which are a symbol of
innocence — at the end of the show.
Abloh seemed to question what humans were doing to the planet, opening the
show to the sound of the steam trains that heralded the Industrial Revolution
and ending it with the haunting Beatles song, “Blackbird”.
The song is said to have been inspired both by nature and the US civil
rights movement.
Several of the garments in the show Abloh called “Plastic” had recycling
symbols alongside his own four-pointed square logo.
But he later said he was using the word as a metaphor for how in “our
generation a banal term all of a sudden turns into a whole different context,
basically in a matter of moments”.
Socks and sandals
The former architect introduced a line of blanket-like capes to his
high-end streetwear, with his usual trainers replaced by sandals with socks
and hiking boots.
A major retrospective of Abloh’s startlingly prolific work in art, fashion
and design opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago last week.
Maluma, the reggaeton star who appears with Madonna in the “Medellin” track
of her new album “Madame X”, has been hailed as a “menswear icon in the
making” this week by Vogue magazine.
He had already turned up at the Heron Preston show Tuesday and has been
sending regular updates to his 43 million followers on Instagram of his
progress through the Paris collections.
Despite Madonna wearing a Palomo Spain outfit for their video, the
Colombian was noticeably absent from the flamboyant Spanish designer’s show
Tuesday which opened Paris men’s fashion week.
Belgian maverick Walter van Beirendonck created the day’s most colourful
and way out show which he called “Witsblitz”, full of wacky atomic superheroes
as well as some rather gorgeous one-of-a-kind jackets.
Where Van Beirendonck turned heads with avant-garde colour combinations his
compatriot Y/Project’s Glenn Martens went for the unexpected through
deconstruction of everyday garments, so “a pocket becomes a sleeve, a collar
opens up and turns into a shoulder pad, a bomber jacket can be worn upside
down”.
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Japanese designer Jun Takahashi of Undercover took a much more conventional
look at the classic black and charcoal grey double and single breasted
suit/bomber jacket combinations, before adding ecotoplasmic prints of peoples
and faces which slowly emerge from the fabric as the collection wore on.
Former Dior and Calvin Klein supremo Raf Simons is due to round off the day
with a late-night show in the Paris suburbs.(AFP)
Photos: Off/White SS20, via Catwalkpictures