Kim Jones takes us to South America and back for Louis Vuitton AW14. 

For AW14 Louis Vuitton takes us all the way across to globe to South America. Kim Jones cites ‘technical travel’ as the main inspiration for his collection, we can now see the world through a screen, so that’s what he did. First looking at maps from space and aerial photos of Machu Pichu, the Atacama Desert and the Nazca Lines in Peru he then travelled to South America to trial some of the countries most luxurious materials.

The venue, as with all Louis Vuitton collections, was just as important as the clothes, the intricate design, inspired by an aerial image of Atacama, was hand painted wall to wall. The landscape also inspired the colour palette and there are also small hints of Peruvian detailing, such as needle punched horizontal stripes. Kim also modified the houses classic Damier motif for AW14, reimagining the print in a dark midnight blue known as Damier Colbalt.
Coats are made of cashmere, scarves of Alpaca and suits of wool and mohair (crease resistant, perfect for travelling) but Kim really pushed the boat out with a small number of garments made from one of the rarest most luxurious materials South America has to offer, vicuña. The vicuña pieces will only be available via Vuitton’s made-to-order service. It’s strange to see such luxury coming from some of the poorest countries in the world but do we expect anything less from Vuitton?