Louis Vuitton S/S 2017

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017
(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Mood board: Kim Jones’ first Louis Vuitton show in 2011 explored his childhood growing up in both Kenya and Botswana. Now in his fifth year at the venerated maison, Jones has returned to those formative influences delivering a spring/summer collection that gestured towards Africa, while eschewing any khaki cliché. He transferred traditional detailing from safari jackets around the body, so straps with D-rings ran down the side of slim-fit trousers, the colours were sun-bleached (like the guests) and dominated by Saharan shades.

Best in show: ‘There’s always something a little London hidden somewhere,’ Jones said of the collection. By this he meant the influence taken from his own personal archive of clothing made by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren at the height of the punk movement. Today a punk spirit is burgeoning in Africa, as documented by the photographer Frank Marshall in his portraits of bikers gangs, pictured wearing heavy leather gear in Botswana. Here the more rebellious touches came with a thick slice of French savoir faire in transparent monogrammed rubber trench coats and fuzzy impala mohair sweaters. Vuitton’s classic Baxter dog collar, more often seen dangling around the necks of Parisian pups, was worn high around the neck.

Team work: Fittingly the collection marks the brand’s second collaboration with Jake and Dinos Chapman – the artists themselves somewhat punk in their attitude. Four specially designed prints depicting animals grazing in a twisted wilderness of the Vuitton monogram were used as a jacquard for oversized coats and silk, short-sleeved shirts. A series of Valise trunks emphasised the main themes for the season, and came in animal hides and prints, or laser-etched with Chapman’s freaky fauna.

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Louis Vuitton Mens S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

INFORMATION 

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.