Desert Rose

Out of the wilderness blossoms Louis Vuitton Men's Collection Pre-Collection 2023

- JONATHAN HO

IT MIGHT BE HARD TO BELIEVE, but roses actually thrive in arid and hot climates. After all, a desert rose is a low-maintenance succulent that produces dozens of trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of pink, rose or white in the summer. Hence, it is here in the challenging conditions of the desert, and a race no less, an analogy to the "desert" or void left by the passing of a creative titan who was Virgil Abloh, that Louis Vuitton whose emblem so happens to be a flower motif blossoms.

Though it had been 100 years since our last pandemic and having been lulled into a false sense of biological security, Covid-19 awakened us to the reality that "adaptation" is the mantra of the modern age. In the face of changing conditions, we weather storms by leaning on one another and collectively adapting to new circumstances. In Abloh's metaphorical wake, the House has indeed evolved to fit its new circumstances.

It is poetic that the metaphor of the desert race also serves as an allegory. Though Abloh is no longer present, his design language lives on, seen on the sole of shoes, the iconic colourways of bags and his signature cuts of jackets, but his most visible influence on the French Maison's studio Prêt-à-Porter Homme - a race continues even if one of the drivers is no longer able to participate, his spiritual successors assume his mantle.