Louis Vuitton Men’s Studio Director Paul Helbers took an inspirational trip to Japan recently and the early results show in the Fall/Winter 2016/12 pre-collection. “We’re always aiming for a mix between casual sport and urban style for the pre-collections,” says Helbers. “This season the balance is even more masculine with an additional kick in details inspired by Japanese sport from baseball to samurais.”
The collection maximizes texture and layering with lots of fabric play to treat the casual/urban contrast in a very sophisticated way.
Shearling is bonded to give the leather exterior a smooth surface. And one jersey zip front sweatshirt has a detachable sheepskin lining. Jackets throughout feature the samurai sleeve with an elbow patch extending to the cuff. The new trouser is styled like Japanese baseball pants with an extra-wide waistband. And in the spirit of relaxed urbanity, casual trousers pair with a velvet blazer in ultra-smooth and crease resistant New Generation velvet.
Dark olive with black sums up the colour range this season with red as the single accent, but there’s also dark indigo blues including several neat wash variations in Japanese denim. Sweaters are paired with heavier shirts, in soft checks or washed denim, for a masculine kick. And shirts are cut short with pockets to be worn over trousers.
A down jacket with detachable sleeves and hood reversing to moleskin examples the casual vs. dressy dynamic. And a cashmere fleece sweater looks deceptively casual.
Louis Vuitton’s Champs-Elysées pattern turns up everywhere in quilted down, on gloves, shirt weaves and silk ties. And the LV logo takes on a casual edge in a tie-dye degradé coloration for scarves.
The protection styling of a vintage Japanese catcher’s blouson inspires the hood quilting for a jacket, and a reversible blouson has a Japanese baseball logo on the back of the silk side. And while intricate cable stitching gives a zip front cashmere sweater a thicker texture for more masculine, casual look, the collection also goes very luxurious and chic in superfine sweaters produced on a unique sock machine. Wool seersucker is a new casual crossover for a blazer this season, which is completely unstructured and styled like a shirt.
The basic idea of this pre-collection is that everything goes with everything. And so thicker garment dyed shirts and textured cashmere sweaters mix effortlessly with suits from the business collection for a casual/chic balance, while a denim suit plays with the dark indigo wash style of Japanese denim.
See the collection.
Photos & text Copyright Louis Vuitton.