Following the wishes that Virgil Abloh himself would have expressed, yesterday the fashion firm Louis Vuitton paid tribute to the one who had been the creative director of its men's line since March 2018, with a last parade dedicated to his memory in Miami. Previously organized event that should have served to celebrate the opening of the firm's first exclusive menswear store in the United States, the second of these characteristics that has already opened its doors on a global scale, but that ended up becoming a sense tribute to the designer, his legacy and his time as creative at Louis Vuitton, after his sad and sudden death this past Sunday, November 28, 2021.

As they had previously announced from the French firm itself, the parade started at 5:00 p.m. (ET) on this same Tuesday, November 30, 2021, 11:30 p.m. peninsular time, from the vicinity of Miami Marine Stadium. First stadium built to attend boat races in the United States, the work of the architect Hilario Candela, in front of which the French fashion firm placed a barge suspended over the water, on top of which it built an ephemeral forest made up of about 90 birches. Recreation of the same atmosphere that could be enjoyed through the digital presentation with which Louis Vuitton unveiled Virgil Abloh's latest collection for the firm, within the framework of the last Men's Fashion Week in Paris last June .

On this ephemeral catwalk over the waters, the firm was in charge of taking to Miami, and to the physical environment, the presentation of that same collection for the Spring/Summer 2022 season that it had already presented, at that time exclusively through the online channel, in June. A proposal that in this case was complemented with 10 new designs, the last ones devised by the designer, which Abloh himself had made expressly for this Miami parade that was carried out under the acronym "7.2". Number with which the French firm referred to this second presentation of what was the seventh, and now we know the last, collection for the house created by the North American creative.

A farewell between friends

Paying tribute to the figure of the North American creative, they did not hesitate to attend this homage parade with a multitude of well-known figures and personalities and close friends of the creative, such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Bella Hadid, Pharrell Williams, Tahar Rahim, Venus Williams , Joe Jonas, Ricky Martin, Jeremy Pope, Joan Smalls, Jesse Williams, Ivanka Trump, Maluma or the entire clan of the Arnault family, headed by Bernard Arnault himself, president and CEO of LVMH, the international holding company that owns Louis Vuitton and 60 percent of Off-White, the own fashion firm founded and directed by Abloh.

Audits suck! Good thing @seththoenen & @jamesmassardo of @JackHenryAssoc are covering “How to Prepare for an Audit… https://t.co/kaBtfH8Plc

— Chef Tu Mar 06 20:13:03 +0000 2018

Throughout a parade that started and ended with the designer's own voice-over, the latest creations designed for the house took place on this dream of a birch forest, which will be reused in other places like the barge. by the American designer. Pieces among which were a good part of those distinctive elements that characterized his designs, such as his cheeky urban air or that aesthetic that swims between the oriental worlds and sports practice. All of them elements that had contributed in recent years to raising the profile of Louis Vuitton's men's line, lowering it from haute couture to "street style", and in this movement bringing the firm closer to the new generations of consumers of luxury goods. .

"The first time I met him was in Paris," explained Maluma throughout some statements collected by the North American news outlet Wwd, while highlighting how what attracted him most was "his energy from him." “He had a beautiful aura. A blue aura”, Maluma pointed out. "The first time I saw him I knew I had met one of my biggest idols." “For me as an artist, it really changed the way I see the world. With his forays “between music, culture and the fashion industry, he changed my way of thinking and improved my way of seeing the world”.

"What happened is very sad," added the musician Rauw Alejandro. “He came to inspire in music and also in culture. And as a musician of the new generations, seeing the GOATs doing great things, doing what they do, is really inspiring. I am very sad about what happened, and I am here celebrating life and culture.”

"It's strange" what happened, said Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Loewe and his firm JW Anderson, and who met Abloh as a fellow member of the jury for the LVMH Prize. "It really makes you aware of your own mortality."

You can watch the full video of the parade here .