Paris: Virgil Abloh bowed his knee to Michael Jackson -a colleague -Afro -Maaman from the midwest whose “Wonderful talent catapulted him to unparalleled fame” -in his Louis Vuitton show Thursday in Paris Men’s Fashion Week.
The designer – the first Afro -Mamican who once led a large label Paris – has not made a direct comparison between himself and the “King of Pop”.
But there was enough for those who wanted to read between the lines.
The 38-year-old Bravura-famous strewn show for his own Ultra hot broken white brand had already picked up the Limelight of Paris on Wednesday.
And his Vuitton show Thursday in the gardens of the former Royal Tuileries Gardens confirmed the Streetwear -Guru as the new pretender for the title of King of the Catwalk.
The designer is currently being pushed with the Georgia-born Demna Gvasalia, which designs both Balenciaga and his own post-Soviet tinted poverty chic brand, vetements, for the title of the most influential maker on the block.
Abloh threw the glove down by sending a sparkling Michael Jackson White Glove as his invitation for the show.
He wrote a long tribute to Jackson in his notes and placed a poem that he wrote about him to his 3.4 million Instagram followers.
He even included the flag of the home of the singer, Indiana, in one of the pleated “flagification” pieces that brought a dash of lively color to another chromatic modest collection.
Abloh, a Renaissance man who studied architecture and engineering before switching to fashion to work with his friend Rapper Kanye West, was born in neighboring Illinois.
In addition to a run of sparkling and jewelry gloves in Jackson style, he sent a sweater, hoodie and a shirt and pants with cartoon figures inspired by “The Wiz”, the completely black version of “The Wizard of Oz”, that Jackson had as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross like Dorothy.
Iron Man also appeared in the guise of an aluminum foil with a hood with hood, worn with similar reflective sunglasses.
Abloh also made a nod to the legendary red jacket with three merging worn by Jackson in the video for his mega hit “Beat It”.
But the designer – whose parents come from Ghana – showed that he was not afraid to take a knife to the heritage of the Paris House, which often played with colonial chic.
To show that the roles have changed, Abloh had one black model on his travels with a Vuitton bag that wore a safari hat and a quasi-soldier camel suit.
