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Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton Spring 2005; Walter Van Beirendonck Fall 2016; Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton Spring 2021
The New York Times published an article recently titled “Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed.” In the header of the article, the following question was posed: “Even before the pandemic, the fashion industry had started to unravel. What happens now that no one has a reason to dress up?” There will of course come a time when we do have occasions to dress up again, when concerts and weddings and nights out become more prevalent than zoom study sessions. Still, what happens then? How will the coronavirus influence the collections that designers put out each season? Will some businesses even be around to find out?
Before the pandemic, men’s fashion had been moving in exciting new directions. Robin Givhan, the only fashion critic to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, boldly declared in her piece covering the Golden Globes Red Carpet in 2019 that “men’s fashion showed it can compete with women’s fashion.” Men began dressing more androgynously, as Harry Styles so brilliantly demonstrated in Alessandro Michelle’s designs for Gucci. We realized that, in Givhan’s words, “it’s okay to delight in fashion rather than just tolerating it.”
This all stands in stark contrast to years of designer hoodies and otherwise boring attempts at looking good. For years, fashion had become more and more about seeking social belonging and approval with one’s clothing as opposed to setting one’s self apart from mainstream clothing. This led to the vicious cycle of an industry driven by consumers demanding the latest trend, the same cycle described in the Times piece mentioned above.
Virgil Abloh is a perfect example of a designer perpetuating the status quo by recycling old ideas. After taking the industry by storm with his Milanese label Off-White, he was appointed as the men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton. This represented a huge leap for the brand, as it was the first time since its founding in 1859 that it bowed to a more streetwear-oriented vision for clothing. However, this year Abloh’s influence has started to wane. His Spring-Summer 2021 collection for Louis Vuitton received heavy, and justified, criticism for what many saw as an overt imitation of Walter Van Beirendonck, a member of the famed Antwerp Six, and his collections throughout the years. (The Antwerp Six is a group of acclaimed fashion designers who graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1980 and 1981. This group also includes Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulmeester, and they have figured heavily into Raf Simons’ designs throughout his career.)
One could argue that this is merely Van Beirendonck having an influence on Abloh’s creative process. Designers have certainly influenced each other throughout the years, with a certain trend or design originating from one designer and quickly taking the industry by storm (think Hedi Slimane’s slim-cut denim for Dior Homme in the mid 2000s, or Balenciaga ushering in the era of the chunky sneaker with the Triple S in 2017.) Abloh himself defended this collection by citing Marc Jacob’s Louis Vuitton Spring 2005, which did include models carrying monogrammed teddy bears. However, Abloh’s Spring 2021 collection for Louis Vuitton not only uses stuffed animals, but it uses them in the same size and shape, stitched onto very similar boxy silhouettes, as Van Beirendonck’s Fall 2016 collection. When Abloh uses the same ideas and implements them in the same manner as another designer, he loses some credibility as an original creative.
Perhaps Abloh’s creative process is defined by using different designs and referencing collections/motifs of other creatives, as this is not the first time he has overtly referenced other designers. Some other examples include his Spring-Summer 2015 women’s collection for Off-White, which repeatedly used the word ‘Nebraska’ across collegiate-style sweatshirts. Raf Simons famously used this same word in the same collegiate style across different sweatshirts in his Fall-Winter 2002 collection, entitled “Virginia Creeper.” Curating different artwork and motifs is certainly a skill, one that Abloh has clearly mastered throughout his career. However, many times people have treated Abloh’s ability to curate as interchangeable with an ability to design wholly original pieces. Vogue’s piece on Abloh’s ‘Nebraska’ collection stated: “Nebraska as code for cool: that’s original.” This is simply an irresponsible way to praise Abloh’s work. No, using “Nebraska as code for cool” is not “original.” It is certainly noteworthy, but it is not necessarily original.
(For a video breaking down this controversy, check out FH TV’s YouTube channel. On top of being a very informative way of getting fashion content, his content is extraordinarily entertaining. His most recent video at the time of writing is called “Everybody Loves Virgil,” and it goes over this and a few other allegations against Abloh for plagiarizing. This is the link to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA9HVQ2EVSQe6a4PlXgd_mA)
However, Abloh’s significance in the fashion industry, and in American culture, cannot be denied. His work caused mainstream high fashion to finally recognize streetwear as a legitimate force, and he has opened many more paths in the industry for people of color. Even if he is not an original artist in the same vein as the Antwerp Six, he certainly subverted the fashion industry in the same way that they did, with more of an emphasis on cultural relevance rather than ground-breaking design.
Emily Bode is a perfect counter-example of a designer whose works stands on its own as original art. She had one of the most successful years a designer could have in 2019, winning the CFDA’s Emerging Designer of the Year Award, GQ’s Breakthrough Designer of the Year Award, and appearing on the Business of Fashion 500 list and Forbes’ 30 under 30. She rose to fame by using vintage and vintage-inspired fabrics, specifically quilts, to create workwear-oriented silhouettes. Her clothes put an emphasis on storytelling, both through their fabrics and the techniques used to assemble them.
Bode’s work is a unique blend of nostalgic references, the likes of which have never been used in menswear before. Her clothes are wild and exciting because of the fabrics and the prints they used, yet they are grounded in traditional methods and techniques. On top of all that, she was the first female designer to show at NYFW: Men’s, and many of the garments she creates emphasize female-centric techniques such as quilting. She designs with a purpose, and as a female designer, is making waves in the fashion industry.
Designers like Bode are what make fashion as an art form so exciting today. Of course, many titans of the industry are continuing their usual ground-breaking work: Raf Simons was recently appointed the co-creative director at Prada with Miuccia Prada, the first time two designers will design for a major label together. But menswear is now full of small, cult-following designers like Bode, in addition to innovative giants like Simons, who give men unique ways to express themselves through their clothing.
