On November 28, 2021, Virgil Abloh, a street fashion leader, off-White manager and creative director of LV menswear, passed away.
Virgil Abloh
Although I don't like and don't agree with Virgil's design philosophy, and he is not the first designer to integrate street elements into fashion brands, it is undeniable that he did turn street elements and street culture, which originally belonged only to a small number of people, into a big cake for everyone, so that many street designers who are not from the class have more voice and more opportunities to emerge, such as the later MMW to GIVENCHY.
Left: Virgil Right: MMW
A quarter has passed since his death, and there have been a variety of speculations about the new creative director of LV menswear, and the most popular rumors after a period of precipitation are Virgil's big brother, fashion policeman, and God rap leader - Ye (Kanye West).
Ye（Kanye）
On the surface, when Virgil took office as LV, Ye had publicly stated that this position originally belonged to him, LV's public relations had also come to him many times, and Ye at that time was ahead of Virgil at that time in terms of fashion trends and public opinion traffic, after all, Ye was also a great benefactor of Virgil, and single-handedly brought Virgil, who was still doing front desk DJs in bars.
but! be! Today, as a small editor of Ye fans, I am going to go against the trend and nag you why Ye is not! Yes! To become the creative director of LV menswear, we should look at things from LV's perspective, not with virgil or street fashion vision. And give three designers in my mind who are most likely to become LV's new creative directors.
Here's a brief overview of two points Ye
Reasons not to be LV Creative Director:
1. A big fan of Kering
Careful friends will find that Ye has always been a big fan of the Kering Group, take the recent example, the picture below is the first set of personal Look released after Ye returned to Ins, BV boots and coat plus SLP leather pants and Rick Owens sunglasses.
This was followed by Ye's Look at the Donda audition, this time more directly all black by Balenciaga (Demna).
After the next few Days service and his daily appearances on The Look, Balenciaga are frequent appearances, if I did not know that Demna is the creative director of Balenciaga, I would definitely wonder if Ye has already settled in Balenciaga.
In fact, in the past, Ye has always admired Demna and his Balenciaga and Vetements, and his album has always been directed by Demna, and in the past few weeks, he also exposed the explosive tripartite cooperation of GAP X Ye X Balenciaga in the past few weeks.
In addition to participating in the first LV show after Virgil's death before the deadline for submission, Ye did not even have a single product of any of the LVMH group's brands, as if he had signed an agreement with Kerring. I think that this first point alone is unlikely to choose Ye from the perspective of LVMH's leaders to be the creative director of menswear at LV, the group's first brand.
Ye is on the LV Spring/Summer 2022 runway
2. Unstable mental state
Ye's mental state, even if you don't know it, must have heard about it, as early as the time he signed with Nike (and possibly longer), he began to show mental instability, which is one of the biggest reasons why Kim divorced him.
At this time, someone may want to leverage "Ye's fan speech on the Internet did not get huge traffic for him?" "This is hype, it's marketing..." Yes, yes, to say that hype creates public opinion hotspots Ye is really very good, but this mixed traffic heat is not so secure on a fashion brand, LV and even LVMH need a person who can be controlled, and Ye is just the opposite.
During the signing with Adidas, he also got on nike shoes several times and publicly stated that "adidas will not let him wear Nike is a kidnapping act." Even some time ago, he hinted on Ins that he would cooperate with Air Jordan, a brand owned by his old owner Nike. And his extreme remarks about skin color, race, politics, etc., may be ignored by Adidas, but these statements will certainly cause a terrible public relations crisis for a LV as the first tier of fashion brands.
It's like when Grandpa Viking John Galliano was swept out of the house because of some improper racial remarks after drinking, not to mention that Ye's design ability may not be even half that of Pirate Grandpa.
Dior's Fall/Winter 1997 runway and John Galliano himself
I can fully imagine Ye's honey remarks about publicly stating that BALENCIAGA (Demna) is YYDS after taking office as LV.
Then LV's new Creative Director
Who will it spend?
1、Yoon
Yoon, an Asian female street fashion designer and the manager of AMBUSH, is the most suitable candidate for LV at present. In fact, a large part of the reason for Virgil's appointment comes from his black skin, which is different from traditional fashion designers who are white, and in the right direction of politics, Yoon not only has a yellow Asian face, but also a well-known strong woman in the fashion industry, carrying feminism to the end.
And like Virgil, she came from the same street background without formal training, but also rushed to the final of LVMH's New Generation Designer Awards, and she is also keen on cross-border co-branding, and the brands on her co-brand resume range from Shu Uemura to Amazon to Nike, from Kirkwood to Alexander Wang to BVLGARI.
Yoon wears a YZY GAP down jacket
They also have one of the most important similarities, she and Virgil both entered the public eye under the promotion of Ye, and she also recognized Virgil, who was an intern with Ye at Fendi at that time, and she should be called Virgil a master brother according to generations.
Left: Ye Right: Yoon
Their presence has redefined the identity of designers and sparked a massive cultural debate. Can street and fashion merge into one? Does the class background really matter to the designer? Is fashion's voice still not limited to whites?
2、Shayne Oliver
You may feel unfamiliar with the name, but his personal brand must be thunderous to you, and yes, he is the manager of the popular fashion brand Hood By Air.
He is the candidate who I think will have the second opportunity to take on the role of LV Creative Director. In terms of design ability, Oliver at his peak presented an unparalleled creativity and talent for design, having won the 2014 LVMH Young Designer Awards Special Award and the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards. His designs are subcultural, and the confrontational brand DNA projects the voices of marginalized groups such as LGBT, Unisex and Goth onto fashion, which is also in line with the politically correct direction in the current environment.
He was earlier than Virgil, Ye and others to perfectly integrate street subculture into haute couture, but he did not achieve their general achievements, which is why he was ranked second, his self-control was low and profligate, and in 2017, he also declared bankruptcy because his brand had no liquidity and was difficult to operate, which also caused a number of fashion people to regret including Virgil.
The MMW family and Virgil are dressed in HBA
Then he settled in the old fashion brand Helmut Lang, and also brought the brand that people remembered back to the top in an instant, but consumers did not buy it, and in just one year, he ended his design career in Helmut Lang. The two-year-long Fashion Week that followed missed hysterical runway performances like HBA, or fashion dialogue that extended with the design of the series on the runway itself.
Helmut Lang's Early Spring 2018 runway as well as Shayne Oliver
However, in 2020, he returned to the public eye with Hood By Air, although there were few follow-up activities, but his three years of silence must have allowed him to understand more of the truth of life, I believe he still has that outstanding design ability, after all, he is the real combination of street culture and haute couture, his radical eventually paved the way for virgil, who is also black, to enter LV.
Shayne Oliver
3、Samuel Rose
Another unfamiliar name? He is the director of A-COLD-WALL*, now a household name and a unique experimental industrial brand. Yes, he was also one of Ye's "DONDA Night School" apprentices, and was almost the younger brother of Virgil like Yoon.
Unlike virgil, the older brother, who is fond of reproductions of the industrial age, Samuel is different. If Off-White belongs to the kind of brand that is highly conceptual and the design of the clothing itself is not satisfactory, then A-COLD-WALL* is a brand that maintains an avant-garde and in-depth design concept under the premise that the clothing itself is very designed.
Left: Samuel Right: Virgil
His design inspiration, like most people, comes from life, discovering the things around him, and the things that inspire him are simple, that is, the things that exist around us, such as a charred plastic bag, a discarded paint label, and a scratched metal buckle.
ACW Fall/Winter 2022 collection
He is an extremely low-key figure, and when asked countless times about the identity of "fashion designer", Samuel has a reserved avoidance or a reluctant slight smile. Yes, he has been instrumental in grafting trends into fashion brands, and the passion and responsible creativity involved in design abound. But for a name that everyone accepts, the answer he gives is: no.
And in my opinion, these three designers plus Virgil and Yeli, Samuel's design ability is the most outstanding, but LV and LVMH may not value the design ability of creative directors, but marketing ability, so in the end I still put the low-key Samuel in third place.
提名：Gosha Rubchinskiy、Cynthia Lu（CPFM）、NIGO、Don C
The above personnel were abandoned by the editor due to the huge workload on weekdays and the excessive low-key reluctance to show their faces.
Because Cynthia Lu is too low-key to have a photo of his face
So who do you think is the person most likely to become LV's new menswear creative director? Cast your sweetheart a precious vote!
Having said all this, at the end of the article I still want to sincerely say to Virgil Abloh, "Thank you, the joy of fashion lies in diversity, thank you for bringing us a new round of innovation in fashion, although you died young at the age of 41, but in the history of fashion you have left a strong mark, you will always live in our hearts." ”
“Virgil was here.”
Editor / AK
Text / AK
Image / newbottega & VOGUE Runway & Google