Pharrell Williams's SS27 men's pre-collection, "Whatever the Weather", turns rain, mud and travel into trompe l'oeil leather, mixed-material outerwear and a lot of Keepalls.
The grey cotton sweatshirt in the Louis Vuitton SS27 men’s pre-collection is not cotton. It is printed leather, finished to look like a hoodie you’d throw on to take out the bins, and it is one of the cleverer jokes Pharrell Williams has made at the house yet.
The collection is titled Whatever the Weather. Williams, Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Creative Director, builds it for a man who moves between cities, continents and climates, and who would like his wardrobe to keep up. The ingredients are tailoring, sportswear and technical outerwear, with rainwear and outdoor clothing as the starting point. The Monogram runs through clothing, footwear and luggage, as you’d expect.
Fabric that pretends
The trompe l’oeil work is where the craft shows. The Trompe L’Oeil Jersey treatment uses printed leather to copy the texture and look of grey cotton sweatshirting. It appears on a zipped hoodie, then jumps to the Keepall 50, the Speedy 30 and the Track backpack. A sweatshirt-grey Speedy is a good gag, and it also happens to be a leather bag.
The illusions keep coming. A silver-coated denim jacket looks soaked through. A cashmere suit passes for denim. A shaved mink bomber is made to read as chinchilla. Rubber spray adds fake mud splashes to denim jackets and footwear, which is a fairly bold thing to do to a luxury jacket before the customer has even left the house.
Outerwear with a workwear accent
The Monogram Reporter theme supplies the structure. Inspired by 1980s workwear, it mixes coated canvas with brown suede and leather across jackets, bags and shoes. A blue nylon puffer carries debossed Monogram leather panels on the shoulders. A reversible orange leather gilet combines coated canvas and suede.
Classic rainwear gets the house treatment too. The yellow fisherman’s slicker, about as practical as a coat gets, is rebuilt in shiny calfskin. Another puffer coat is cut from mini-Monogram jacquard tailoring fabric. There is a belted business suit with a relaxed silhouette, and reversible knitwear with cables on one face and Monogram on the other. A fleece blouson packs down into its own front pocket. Cashmere versions of hoodies, T-shirts and polo shirts round out the soft end.
The story gets a narrator as well. A cartoon follows a businessman travelling from New York to Paris through shifting weather, and it turns up on shirting, denim, linings and leather accessories.
Leathergoods and footwear do the heavy lifting
For a pre-collection, the luggage is where this gets commercial. Monogram Reporter extends to blue and yellow coated canvas, cognac suede details and varsity-style tags, across Keepalls, the Nil, Flaneur and Christopher, plus smaller travel accessories. A Keepall 35 carries glossy three-dimensional raindrops and a cloud-printed luggage tag. Another bag is shaped like an umbrella, which leaves little doubt about the theme. The Louis Bear bag charm shows up in a miniature yellow raincoat.
Eyewear and jewellery fill in the details: LV Lock sunglasses in a new Round Square silhouette, crocodile leather LV Heritage sunglasses, Monogram knitwear and colourful silver jewellery.
Footwear is built around materials that can take weather. The LV Ranger walking boot combines suede, rubber and ripstop on a hiking sole. The LV Drop 300 sneaker uses mohair, mesh and suede. The LV Titled picks up Monogram Reporter constructions and printed denim graphics. The LV Trainer comes back in several versions, among them colourful ripstop and nylon mixes, laser-printed Monogram treatments and Speedy Infinity graphics. Selected Trainers and Rangers get the rubber mud-splash application.
What it says about the menswear line
Read as a whole, the collection shows how Williams’s studio works. The idea is simple and easy to grasp (weather, and a man in transit), and it is carried by recognisable Louis Vuitton objects: the Keepall, the Speedy, the Monogram, the trainer. Each gets a new surface, a new material or a small joke, so the codes stay familiar while the product looks different. Tailoring, sportswear and technical outerwear sit side by side. The travel bags make the theme practical, and the clothes and shoes back it up.
That is a sensible position for a pre-collection to take. It offers wearable pieces, such as a packable fleece, a reversible knit and a hiking boot, next to the showier work. Printed-leather sweatshirts and cashmere that passes for denim are the pieces most likely to get attention.
Via DSCENE
