New York based skatewear brand and serial collaborator Supreme has teamed up with Louis Vuitton for the French house’s Autumn/Winter 2017/18 menswear show.
The range of accessories and ready to wear pieces – boldly embellished with the signature logos of both brands – marks the increasingly symbiotic relationship between luxury and irreverent streetwear brands.
The collaboration has already produced excitement amongst Supreme’s loyal social media fans, with a dedicated Supreme ‘leaker’ posting pictures of the collection hours before its catwalk debut. Louis Vuitton designer Kim Jones also added to the social uproar himself, posting an Instagram picture of a Supreme sticker on a monogrammed Louis Vuitton bag, in a move that mimicked the styling of Instagrampopular ‘luxury’ designs
The collection is just one example of how luxury brands are cashing in on the success of catwalk copies and tongue in cheek, hilo collaborations. This month, French label Vetements created an ‘Official Fake’ version of its statement raincoat in response to the success of parody brand Vetememes’ riff on the popular jacket. Meanwhile, in September 2016, graffiti artist Gucci Ghost was enlisted by his namesake brand to collaborate on its Autumn/Winter 16/17 collection.
Unlike previous Supreme collaborations, the Louis Vuitton collection will only be sold in select LV stores and temporary locations, in a strategy that could mimic the success of queue attracting Popups such as Kanye West’s Life of Pablo merchandise shop.