#Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring 2023

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Joshua Seth at Louis Vuitton, Spring 2023 Menswear

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various fall 2023 runway shows

✨menswear✨

* all images were sourced from vogue runway

[tinasnowz]

MEGAN THEE STALLION attending the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring-Summer 2024 show in Paris, France (June 20, 2023)

[hewyy]

Louis Vuitton | Spring 2023 Menswear

Source: Vogue Runway

[venka]

ZENDAYA — attends the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring-Summer 2024 show (June 20, 2023)

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Louis Vuitton menswear Spring 2024 debut by Pharrell Williams at Paris Fashion Week 2023

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PIERRE GASLY & KIKA GOMES - Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring-Summer 2024 show - Paris Fashion Week - June 20th, 2023

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Miranda Kerr in Louis Vuitton at the Louis Vuitton Spring '24 Menswear show in Paris on June 20, 2023.

[heartsoftruth]

Lewis Hamilton attends the the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 20, 2023

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton attends the louis vuitton menswear spring-summer 2024 during paris fashion week - june 20, 2023 📷 stefano rellandini / getty

[missronniemakmissi]

Zendaya at Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2024 menswear show Jun 21, 2023

[therunwayarchive]

Misato Nakajima at Louis Vuitton, Spring 2023 Menswear

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Zendaya | Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 photocall, Paris | 20 June 2023

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Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2023 Menswear Campaign

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Louis Vuitton | Spring 2023 Menswear

Source: Vogue Runway

[confessionsfromthesecondrow]

Fashion In Flux.

As 2022 drew to a close, the tectonics slowly began shifting; now, as we embark into 2023, fashion is finally facing a major vibe shift. 

While the past seven years have been peppered with rising talents and breakout stars, following the last seismic shift, it has undeniably been a two-man race between Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Balenciaga’s Demna. 

Until it wasn’t. 

Following Michele’s recent announcement that he’d be parting ways with the Italian house, occurring almost simultaneously with Balenciaga-gate, fashion finds itself in a state of flux.

Michele’s appointment as creative director back in 2015 came as something of a surprise – triumphant over more recognisable names including Riccardo Tisci, Christopher Kane, Joseph Altuzarra, and Tom Ford, again – with Kering’s chief François-Henri Pinault tasking the designer with taking the house in a ‘daring direction’ following predecessor Frida Giannini’s early exit. 

It’s a formula we’ve similarly seen strike gold in the years since with Daniel Lee at Bottega Veneta and Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli, but it has also been catastrophic, in the case of Justin O’Shea’s breakneck seven-month tenure at Brioni and Lanvin’s seemingly revolving front door.

Revisiting his Autumn/Winter 2015 debut (the unofficial one), Michele’s maximalist magpie tendencies weren’t as grandiose as we’ve come to expect, but his willowy boys with their luscious locks, pussybow blouses, fur-lined slippers, and nerdy, oversized reading glasses were a world away from the stark streetwear we were seeing in menswear at the time. Similarly, his womenswear debut was an entirely different offering to Miuccia Prada’s smart and subversive Prada, Hedi Slimane’s svelte and skanky Saint Laurent, Nicolas Ghesquière’s sleek and chic Louis Vuitton, or Phoebe Philo’s salve for all wounds, Céline – before Slimane later axed the é. 

After presenting four collections – his AW15 menswear and womenswear debuts (presented separately, before the brand went co-ed in 2017) a Resort 2016 show in New York, and a stepped-up sophomore menswear outing – Michele was awarded International Designer of the Year at the 2015 British Fashion Awards for having ‘set the fashion agenda’ and ‘confirming Gucci’s position as a truly directional fashion house.’ 

Meanwhile, Demna, who we now know as the mononymous creative director at Balenciaga, was still somewhat unknown, just beginning to step into the limelight as design lead at Vetements, presenting his sophomore collection during the same season. He would be named as Alexander Wang’s successor seven months later in October 2015. 

In the years that followed, both designers began laying the foundations to create the behemoth brands today, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum – Balenciaga the dark and dirty counterpart to the romance and nostalgia of Gucci. 

There’s the inescapable assault from both brands as the go-to for your celebrity faves: from Balenciaga’s Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Dua Lipa, Elliot Page, Justin Bieber, Isabelle Huppert, Michaela Coel, Nicole Kidman, and Kylie Jenner to Gucci’s Harry Styles, Jared Leto, Lana Del Rey, Florence Welch, Måneskin, Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish, Dev Hynes, Idris Elba, Janelle Monáe, Julia Garner, Andrew Garfield, Jodie Smith, Jack Grealish – you get it. 

Yet amid standout shows (Autumn/Winter 2018, Spring/Summer 2019, Resort 2020, and Autumn/Winter 2022) meme-orable moments (from severed heads to platform Crocs) and cohort of collaborations (adidas times two, Palace, The Simpsons, Disney, and even each other in fashion’s first multiverse moment) their commonality stretched beyond the creative into their forward-thinking business mindset. Whether partnering with the World Food Programme, aiding employees to find safe abortions, ditching fur, platforming upcoming design talents, hiring diehard stans, or branching into beauty, Demna and Alessandro represented a ‘new’ kind of creative director – simultaneously scrutinising the finer details while taking scope of the bigger picture. 

Yet it’s this painstaking attention to detail that makes Balenciaga’s recent ad scandal even more perplexing. Despite the brand initially blaming production company North Six – with a $25m lawsuit that was swiftly dropped – insiders question, rightfully so, how such images could see the light of day with so many stakeholders involved. 

Regardless of which side of the scandal you find yourself on, it’s impossible to ignore the endurance of this particular controversy. Thanks to the Right’s rebirth of ‘Satanic Panic’, luxury brands are forced to walk an ever-shrinking tightrope to do the ‘right’ thing, not because they want to, but because they have to in order to protect their bottom line. Remember when controversial ads were en vogue? 

Since Balenciaga-gate, Gucci found itself under similar criticism following the release of its ‘HA HA HA’ campaign – featuring Harry Styles wearing a teddy bear t-shirt toting a mattress that denigrators said belonged to a ‘toddler’. In a now deleted TikTok video, Coach was decried for Disney-themed teddy bears in its Sydney store that were described as ‘satanic’ and ‘evil’. 

For Balenciaga, the fallout (still falling) from its Chernobyl has seen Kim Kardashian, the poster child for Demna’s Balenciaga, noticeably out of the brand claiming to be ‘shaken by the disturbing images’ and ‘re-evaluating her relationship with the brand’. After appearing in the brand’s AW22 campaign, Euphoria’s Alexa Demie deleted all Balenciaga images from her Instagram feed and promptly unfollowed for good measure. Then the Business of Fashion rescinded its ‘highest honour’, the Global VOICES award and instead asked the brand representatives to attend to explain the saga – they declined. 

As the brand’s first show post-Balenci-gate approaches, the mind intrigues whether deep-thinking Demna will address the controversy. Amid the storm that has permanently taken root above Balenciaga HQ, the designer and CEO Cédric Charbit seem to be on borrowed time.

So, who does that leave in line to succeed fashion’s Iron Throne? At the end of 2022, Miu Miu took home Lyst’s title of hottest brand of the year for the first time – beating away heavyweights Balenciaga (who has topped the chart six times) and Gucci (topping 10 times and never placing lower than 4th). 

Thanks to its viral micro skirt set – which solidified its status on countless covers and via Shein knock-offs and homemade Halloween costumes – Miuccia trebled down from Spring/Summer 2022 through to Spring/Summer 2023, turning Moo Moo into a cash cow with churning out micro bras and adorable accessories.  

There’s also the new guard of next gen designers invited to make their mark at hallowed houses: Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Harris Reed will shortly present their debuts for Ann Demeulemeester and Nina Ricci respectively, while Maximilian Davis will reveal his sophomore runway collection for Ferragamo. With luck, an exciting opportunity to see what they’ve got, and not another revolving door. Bianca Saunders and Priya Ahluwalia next please! 

Will Matthieu Blazy achieve a hattrick at Bottega Veneta? What has Raf Simons got up his sleeve? What Ever Happened To Phoebe Philo? With heavyweights in limbo – Alessandro Michele, Riccardo Tisci – a hotly anticipated debut from Daniel Lee at Burberry, and open spots at Louis Vuitton menswear and Gucci, the guillotine looks like it’s readying for more chops with LVMH’s recent CEO moves. 

Time to place your bets.