Photo: Louis Vuitton

These Art-Inspired Menswear Collections Should Be on Every Fashion Lover’s Wish List

The latest looks from Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Loewe perfectly marry sartorial savvy with artistic flair

Everyone could use a distraction these days—and it’s nice to know we can still count on Paris Fashion Week to deliver. While the menswear shows were for the most part virtual, they nonetheless illustrated the industry’s immense creativity in full bloom. The fall-winter collections by Louis Vuitton, Loewe, and Dior, in particular, showcased the perfect harmony that fashion and art can create when in concert together. Louis Vuitton’s   Virgil Abloh grabbed headlines with his architectural puffer jackets depicting historical landmarks, while artist Joe Brainard served as inspiration for the Spanish fashion house Loewe, where his signature pansy collages were translated in array of exciting directions. Dior’s Kim Jones, meanwhile, mined Scottish-born painter Peter Doig’s extensive body of work to come up with several garments featuring his moody, abstract style.

See below to find out how the looks came to life.

Photo: Louis Vuitton

1. Louis Vuitton

In addition to enlisting artist Lawrence Weiner to embellish some of the show’s accessories, Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director Virgil Abloh conjured a striking series of conceptual jackets that take cues from his architectural design roots. One of the attention-grabbing pieces featured 3-D miniatures of Paris landmarks, among them the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame, while another included a forest of iconic New York skyscrapers. With lockdowns in full effect around the world, what better way to parts of your favorite city to you?

Photo: Loewe

Photo: Loewe

2. Loewe

Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson has a history of finding inspiration in artists. (Ken Price and David Wojnarowicz are just two recent examples.) Now, the Madrid-based fashion house’s fall-winter collection—which was delivered to editors in an oversized book form—continues that legacy by paying homage to late New York artist Joe Brainard, who passed away of AIDS-related illness in 1994. Brainard’s bewitching collages of pansy flowers proved among the most fertile sources of inspiration for Anderson, who emblazoned the blossoms on an array of ultra-chic garments, like oversized knitted cardigans, as well as handbags and other accessories.

Photo: Dior

Photo: Dior

3. Dior

Dior’s collaboration with the painter Peter Doig marks artist director Kim Jones’s most intensive artist collaboration yet. For the past five months the Scottish-born artist has worked directly with the maison, attending fittings in the studio and painstakingly matching textiles to the hues found in his own ethereal paintings. The spectacular results, which include items of clothing plucked directly from Doig’s past works, were unveiled in an online video. The artist also hand-painted his famous lion motif onto several accessories, among them belt buckles, bracelets, and a bowler hat in what is sure to be the perfect collector’s item.

Photo: Louis Vuitton

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