在時尚界，很少有職位能像Louis Vuitton的創意總監一樣，擁有如此大的文化影響力。Marc Jacobs、Nicolas Ghesquière、Kim Jones、Virgil Abloh。只有最知名、最具革命性的設計師，才有幸在法國時裝品牌內領導藝術方向。美國製作人兼藝術家 Pharell Williams 在今年初被任命為Louis Vuitton男裝系列的創意總監之後，也加入了這個獨一無二的俱樂部。
Marc Jacobs 於 1997 年加入Louis Vuitton ，成為該品牌的第一位創意總監，並率先將品牌拓展至男女成衣時裝領域，大膽偏離該時裝品牌專注於行李箱與旅行用品的傳統。值得注意的是，他並沒有放棄Louis Vuitton 擅長的Monogram帆布。具體來說，在Jacobs時代（97-2014年間）的所有Entrupy Verified商品中，有56%是以Monogram帆布製成。Louis Vuitton 創意總監不需要放棄傳統的每一個層面才能成功。
Instead, Jacobs set Louis Vuitton apart by embracing the multi-faceted nature of creative expression and developing relationships between the brand and artists, designers, and pop culture icons. A new generation of bags & leather goods shoppers was drawn to Louis Vuitton, attracted by Jacob’s innovative perspective. His impact was not solely cultural. Jacobs also quadrupled Louis Vuitton’s profits.
Jacobs 在Louis Vuitton 任職期間，一直保留Louis Vuitton 女裝系列的最終藝術控制權，而 Paul Helbers (2006-2011) 與 Kim Jones (2011-2013) 則掌管Louis Vuitton男裝系列，向 Jacobs 負責，直到 Jacobs 離開品牌為止。2013年，由於Jacobs離開路易威登專注於其同名時尚品牌，Jones被授予路易威登男裝系列的藝術總監權。在女裝方面，Jacobs 由革新Balenciaga 的法國比利時設計師 Nicolas Ghesquière 取代。與之前的 Jacobs 一樣，Ghesquière 深知時裝與流行文化之間的交織關係。Ghesquière超越了傳統的西方參考，認識到亞洲市場的美麗與重要性。Ghesquière 從動漫美學中汲取靈感，並向日本傳統剪裁致敬，為品牌注入了全新的獨特靈感。
In menswear, Jones was also an admirer of Japanese culture – specifically the intersection between street-wear and high-fashion materials that had defined the country’s ready-to-wear industry for decades. With that aesthetic in mind, Jones endeavored to make Louis Vuitton’s clothes
street-ready and cool. Collaborating with established streetwear labels such as Fragment Design and Supreme, Louis Vuitton expanded their core demographic base to include shoppers from 16-year-olds to over-60-year-olds. Representative of the boundary-pushing, the number of authentications with non-traditional fabrics (classified by Entrupy as “other”) as a percentage of the total number of authentication in a given era is 50% greater in the Jones era compared to the Jacobs era. Jones left Louis Vuitton in 2018 for a position at Burberry, but his embrace of streetwear paved the way for arguably the most influential bags & leather goods streetwear designer of this era to replace him.
Virgil Abloh was unparalleled. He was an architect, an engineer, a DJ, a musician, a fashion designer – a true artist. He was a living manifestation of the idea that the only prerequisite for fashion should be a vision and tore down the notion that a privileged background and formal training were required for industry success. At Louis Vuitton, Abloh embraced color and reimagined traditional silhouettes to match the bags & leather goods streetwear aesthetic the brand had come to champion. He called it “Maintainamorphosis”: the principle that old ideas should be instilled with value and presented in tandem with new ideas because both have equal worth. Louis Vuitton handbags debuted in 2019 and 2020 – the middle of Abloh’s time at the company – represent 12% of all Louis Vuitton bags that Entrupy has authenticated. Counterfeiters also target this era. Over 20% of all the Louis Vuitton bags that Entrupy has rendered unidentifiable were from 2019 or 2020.
Abloh 在經歷了與癌症的艱苦搏鬥後，於 2021 年與世長辭。
文化史上的開拓者和革命者。
今年，Pharell Williams在六月的夕陽下，在新橋上發表了他對Louis Vuitton 未來發展方向的建議，全球矚目。以他的個人風格為基礎，並為紀念黑人文化對時尚界的貢獻而設計的這場時裝秀，其壯觀與自信贏得時裝愛好者的廣泛讚譽；然而，一些時裝評論家指出，創造這樣一個備受矚目的文化時刻，可能會讓這個系列本身黯然失色。評論家質疑這個系列是否代表了真正的新視角，並懷疑 Williams 在未來的週期中是否有能力重現同等的奢華。隨著 Williams 在Louis Vuitton站穩腳步，時裝界屏息以待下一步的發展。在2022年，有30%的手袋鑑定採用了無法傳統分類的布料。又或者，Williams 會否倚重傳統，重拾一直以來最常被鑑定的 Monogram 手袋布料？在他之前的創意總監所開創的先例表明，預測是危險的，天空才是極限。
