BANGKOK GOODBYE

Louis Vuitton Reveals Unseen Looks by Departed Designer Virgil Abloh

The design house built a film and runway show around Abloh’s looks, and staged the show in Thailand.

On June 1, Louis Vuitton staged an homage to the cultural force Virgil Abloh in Bangkok, Thailand, by revealing nine, never-before-seen looks crafted by the departed designer, who passed away unexpectedly last November after privately battling cancer. The live-streamed runway show began with footage of a young child waking up, running around the house and playing before going for a swim, eventually ending up on a dock in the middle of the lake made up to look like the young boy’s bed. “Based on [filmmaker Sivaroj Kongsakul’s] own childhood memories, the story follows the formative experiences of an 11-year-old boy in the surroundings of rural Thailand. It is an illustration of a belief integral to Virgil Abloh’s world view: Youth is global,” Louis Vuitton said in a statement. Abloh’s last looks, so to speak, reflect the whimsy of that world view. Bunny-eared hats, fake flowers stuffed in handbags and Louis Vuitton paint bucket handbags could be seen on the runway.