Can Louis Vuitton Win With Skaters As Virgil Abloh Signs Lucien Clarke?
A guest is seen at Street Style : Paris Fashion Week - Menswear Spring/Summer 2020 : Day 4 At Dior Homme fashion show, on June 21, 2019, in Paris, France. (Photo by Nataliya Petrova/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Written by Cassell Ferere originally published on Forbes.com
Virgil Abloh, the Creative Director of Menswear for Louis Vuitton, has recently signed a deal with Jamaican-born pro-skater Lucien Clarke. Clark is a sponsored skater for Palace Skateboards and is cosmopolitan in his upbringing. From Jamaica, he was raised in New York City until he was 12 when he moved to London. Being a black skater at that, the trajectory for Clarke, as well as Abloh, wasn’t necessarily planned for their successes to bring them together in merging the skate world with the high-end luxury fashion market.
PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 11: Skater Lucien Clarke attends Baume HRS Launch Cocktail at Studio des Acacias October 11, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage)
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As origins would show, the skating world and the luxury market are purely contrasting entities that have developed over decades out of systemic and disenfranchising motives. In luxury, being an elitist and exclusive society, you essentially had to buy your way into. Skate culture is a more inclusive culture, like any sub-culture, and is open to those who have the same passion for skateboarding and life.
As years went on, slowly but surely, the Soho lofts of Green street would meet the brick and mortar of Lafayette street. Exhibiting a craze like no other, under the creative direction of Kim Jones, the Supreme x Louis Vuitton collaboration in 2017 stimulated a certain sense that luxury could be organically streetwear. With the Supreme box logo over the famed LV monogram logo, those fortunate to get their hands on a piece from the collection didn’t think much of skating in the gear. It was more so to flaunt their style, whether you were a skater, supreme head, Hypebeast, rich kid, or guy alike.
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 14: A travel bag entitled "Keepall", a Skateboard box and a mail trunk by Louis Vuitton x Supreme are displayed during the exhibition "The Rise of Supreme / 30 years of American urban culture" at Artcurial auction house on May 14
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The collaboration even offered a full skateboard assembly, which included deck, trucks, wheels, a deck as well as a carrying case both covered in the LV monogram logos, in red and white. The crossover was as real as it got and we saw the youngest consumer generation partake in patronizing one of the oldest heritage brands out of France, today with 166 years under its belt.
In an Instagram post, Abloh mentioned how he had been recording skate sessions with Lucien Clarke for about a year, but the two have worked together on occasion for Louis Vuitton's men’s collections. Clarke walked in Abloh’s first LV show in 2018.
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 21: Stylist Virgil Abloh (2nd R) and Kanye West (2nd L) pose after the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 21, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty
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If you know of Abloh, he is changing the perspective of normal and for the entire fashion and art industry. Similar to how American-French painter and artist Marcel Duchamp, Abloh’s most referenced idol, challenged the art world back during the turn of the 20th century.
Abloh is doing things at a tremendously fast pace and every so often he puts out lack-luster art that is usually criticized, mainly because the people expect better from him. Virgil Abloh is attempting to fully introduce and integrate skate culture into luxury fashion and the traditions of the founders.
NEW YORK CITY, NY - MAY 24: (L-R) Pharrell Williams, Nigo, Jay-Z and Pusha T attend LOUIS VUITTON & INTERVIEW MAGAZINE Party for Pharrell Williams and Nigo at Louis Vuitton in Soho on May 24, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Billy Farrell/Patrick
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Tradition is something displayed in Abloh’s collaboration with Japanese streetwear icon Nigo, formerly of Bape, now of Human Made. The designs and accessories reflect the heritage and idea of travel that Louis Vuitton was originally founded on.
Skate culture is purely modern and for years had a style in fashion and art [graffiti] that was looked down upon. Hitting hard in 2009, in a second collaboration with the then creative director Marc Jacobs, fashion designer, and artist Steven Sprouse. Sprouse defaced some ordinary Louis Vuitton bags to look like they were walls in New York City written on with neon fathead markers like in the ‘80s. An inclination that street culture was becoming more attractive to the masses.
NEW YORK - JANUARY 08: Atmosphere during the tribute to Stephen Sprouse cocktail party hosted by Louis Vuitton at Louis Vuitton Soho on January 8, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Louis Vuitton)
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A subtle flex, Abloh is quiet in his strategy of merging the two lanes. Although Louis Vuitton has taken out a full-page ad in Trasher magazine starring the pro-skater Clarke, Abloh took the time on Instagram to make us anxious about this collaboration with its untold release date.
PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 02: Ahreum Ahn and Lucien Clarke attend the Vivienne Westwood show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2019/2020 on March 02, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Julien Hekimian/Getty Images)
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In most cases, you can throw on your safety gear, plan a route into the wilderness, and set off to locations unknown, and in most cases, be back in time for tea!