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.
