Nobody can predict the future, but there are a few creatives out there in various industries who have a certain intuition about where things are headed, either by predicting trends or by outright creating them. One of these people is inarguably Virgil Abloh, the current artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear. Abloh not only oversees Louis Vuitton’s menswear line, he also moonlights as a DJ and acts as the CEO of his own Milan-based label, Off-White, as well as regularly exhibiting his own original artwork, and collaborating with other brands like Nike, or other creatives like Dev Dynes, Steve Lacy, Sera Williams, and Rihanna on a variety of different projects. Dude does altogether too much.
Now the designer is attempting to predict what the future of fashion holds, particularly the year 2054, in his new collection for Louis Vuitton dubbed simply “2054.” The particular year marks exactly 200 years after the founding of Louis Vuitton in 1854, and consists of a variety of luxury tech wear, mostly clad in post-apocalyptic black leather, like jackets, pants, holographic bags, rainbow camo, 3D pants shimmery vests, and a shitload of pockets.
Each garment, from the puffer jacket to the parkas, are multifunctional and water-repellent, which is totally appropriate considering by the year 2054 we’re likely going to be dealing with a whole lot more water due to rising sea levels. While ultimately any attempt to accurately predict what people will wear over 30 years in the future is futile — we highly doubt we’ll all be rocking Louis V — we appreciate Abloh’s attempt to envision a future for fashion, rather than just offering another luxury athleisure collection.
Louis Vuitton’s 2054 collection will launch in-store and online sometime in December. Check out the full collection from the Louis Vuitton lookbook below.
