Ditching traditional fashion imagery, the Maison's new menswear designer reflects on boyhood and manhood for his compelling debut campaign.

<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/virgil-abloh-debut-louis-vuitton-menswear-collection-is-now-in-stores">Louis Vuitton</a> (and, consequently,&nbsp;luxury fashion) is ushering in <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/the-10-biggest-changes-that-shaped-fashion-in-2018">a new era</a> under <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/louis-vuitton-names-virgil-abloh-new-menswear-designer">Virgil Abloh&#39;s tutelage</a>. Responsible for the most <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/louis-vuitton-menswear-spring-summer-2019-runway-show-by-virgil-abloh-in-palais-royal-paris-review-photo-gallery">diverse menswear runway shows</a> that the Maison has ever staged, Abloh is now driving home his message of inclusivity through&nbsp;his first&nbsp;campaign for the French fashion house.

Steering clear of your typical fashion campaign subject matter, Louis Vuitton&#39;s Men&#39;s Spring/Summer 2019 campaign explores the question of what makes a man. &quot;I wanted to make something that is universal and human at the core,&quot; <a href="https://wwd.com/business-news/media/virgil-abloh-unveils-first-louis-vuitton-menswear-campaign-1202978701/">shared</a> Abloh.&nbsp;&quot;Inclusive and dense, something that has gravity.&quot; His answer is a campaign that chronicles the different stages of a man&#39;s life in 3 parts, which will be revealed respectively in January, February and March.

The first part,&nbsp;Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence, is shot by&nbsp;Inez &amp; Vinoodh and features a cast of young boys&nbsp;(including a three-year-old toddler) amidst&nbsp;poppies and rainbow motifs &mdash; a nod to the collection&#39;s inspiration, The Wizard of Oz.&nbsp;

Louis Vuitton Men's SS19 Campaign: "Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence" by Inez & Vinoodh

Abloh pays homage to&nbsp;French artist Gustave Courbet for the second part, The Painter&#39;s Studio, by recreating Courbet&#39;s painting of the same name. Having famously <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/virgil-abloh-i-am-not-a-designer">declared</a> that&nbsp;he is not a designer, Abloh himself takes centre stage as the artist in the image shot by&nbsp;Mohamed Bourouissa.&nbsp;He&#39;s surrounded by his circle of&nbsp;friends, team mates and models, including his show&nbsp;stylist Christine&nbsp;Centenera, artist Lucien Smith and musicians Steve Lacy and Syd Tha Kyd.

1 - Mohamed Bourouissa.JPG

The campaign is concluded with&nbsp;School Teens&nbsp;by&nbsp;Raimond Wouda, which depicts students clad in the monochromatic T-shirts recalling the ones given out at Abloh&#39;s debut Louis Vuitton show in Paris. The photos are&nbsp;a contemporary take on the group portraits of Dutch Golden Age painting, meant to represent a teenager&#39;s &quot;desire to belong, contrasted by the need for individuality.&quot;

Louis Vuitton Men's SS19 Campaign: "School Teens" by Raimond Wouda

With his debut Louis Vuitton campaign, Abloh offers up a fresh&nbsp;perspective of what a fashion campaign can represent. He&nbsp;has chosen to emphasize&nbsp;the values &mdash; not the clothes &mdash; of his first collection, casting forth the&nbsp;images&nbsp;into artistic territory. (It&#39;s no coincidence that two parts of the campaign were shot by&nbsp;artists instead of fashion photographers.)

It also opens up a whole new conversation on luxury fashion: what is it? Who is it for? What will it look like in future? &quot;The future of fashion isn&#39;t going to be fashion,&quot; <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/virgil-abloh-i-am-not-a-designer">said</a> Abloh in an interview last year. If that&#39;s true, this campaign may very well be Abloh&#39;s first mark as a fashion oracle.&nbsp;

Virgil Abloh Makes a Statement With His First Louis Vuitton Campaign

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