Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton returns to China for another spin-off show, this time at the exclusive luxury resort Aranya Gold Coast.
On September 16, at 6:00 P.M. PST, Louis Vuitton presented its Menswear Spring/Summer 2023 Spin-off show at the beaches of Aranya Gold Coast, two hours away from Beijing. Since 2019, the fashion powerhouse has been staging spin-offs of its biannual Paris Fashion Week collections all over the world, where it debuts never-before-seen looks in dialogue with the show before it, as well as a peek into the upcoming season. Taking place in key international markets, the spin-offs have been staged in locales like Singapore, Miami, Tokyo, Shanghai, and even Seoul, marking the Maison’s buzziest one to date after global superstars BTS, then newly-appointed ambassadors, surprised guests by modeling during the Fall/Winter 2021 spin-off in July of last year.
On Friday, Louis Vuitton continued its now highly-anticipated tradition of jet-setting to a new place, this time for a spin-off of the Menswear Spring/Summer 2023 collection. The show, originally presented during PFW at the Louvre in June, featured 73 candy-colored looks that traipsed down a vivid yellow train set-inspired runway, bookended by performances from the marching band of Florida A&M University. “Be Humble” rapper Kendrick Lamar even performed at the June show, honoring the house’s late menswear designer with the lines “Long live Virgil” in between verses.
Though the late menswear designer passed in November 2021 and showed the house’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection posthumously in January of the next year, Abloh’s presence was felt all throughout the show—an upbeat, boisterous, and joyous celebration of his legacy. It also marks the first collection he no longer had a stake in and his entire team walked at the end of the show in his stead.
At the spin-off show on Friday, the label added 11 new looks to the June show’s repertoire and built an iteration of the magnified playground set seen in Paris, designed by the Louis Vuitton Studio Prêt-à-Porter Homme. Like its Spring/Summer predecessor, the catwalk—all 320-meters of it—was positioned beside magnificent structures, this time between Aranya’s Lonely Library and the Community Hall. The show also served as an ode to its locale, spotlighting several Chinese talents, including directors Jia Zhangke and Wei Shujun, Cannes Film Festival regulars, who screened a special film. Guests were treated to music by Beijing-based instrumental band Sleeping Dogs.
This isn’t the first time Parisian label showed a spin-off in China—Nicolas Ghesquière showed the Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 Spin-off in Shanghai last November. But the marriage of the fashion house and Aranya, a resort town in Beidaihe, was a fitting choice since the locale is known for its own artistic community, with regular stagings of art exhibitions, music festivals, and landmark architecture. With the partnership set to continue well after the final model sashayed down the runway, Louis Vuitton is fully committing to the concept of play, transforming Aranya’s communities with painted murals, cross walks, buses, and even a local cinema. The label is also staging subsequent events including the Librairies Éphémères project through October 9, which mounts two book kiosks that stock the complete collection of the brand’s Travel Editions and Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh, the house’s newly launched tome, and a two-day event select film screenings.
Below, the 11 new looks that debuted at the Menswear Spring/Summer 2023 spin-off show in Aranya Gold Coast.
