The French haute couture house Louis VUITTON shakes up the codes of luxury fashion by collaborating with a skater, the British professional sportsman of Jamaican origin : Lucien Clarke. The latter expressed his creativity to develop the very first skate shoe of the Vuitton era. Named « A view », this sneaker will be included in a special part of the men’s Pre-Spring 2021 collection.
In August 2020, LV’s new menswear creative director, Virgil Abloh, announced that he had hired Team Palace star Lucien Clarke as the luxury brand’s first skateboard ambassador. Clarke had already paraded for Abloh and appeared in a Vuitton lookbook. The news of this surprising signature, bringing the world of luxury and streetwear closer together, had been publicized via the leading skateboard magazine, Trasher. Lucien Clarke is photographed there performing a figure on his skateboard, wearing a new sneaker.
This shoe is presented to us today and is available in 3 colorways : black and orange, in shades of blue, and white and orange. It’s adorned with a style inspired by the 90s and consists of an upper combining technical textile and calf leather. The LV logo adorns the tongue and the Louis Vuitton signature is affixed to the lower part of the quarter panel, in gold or silver depending on the iteration. Round laces blending into the vamp, as well as reflective tongue and heel pulls complete the design. The whole is based on a padded sole made of technical foam and semi-translucent polyurethane, revealing the shoe’s secondary color : orange for the black or white pair, and luminous blue for the navy blue iteration.
The Lucien Clarke x Louis Vuitton « A view » will be released in the first months of 2021, as part of the Pre-Spring collection, on louisvuitton.com. The price has not been communicated but this sneaker is announced as the most expensive skate shoe in history… More info coming soon, stay tuned !
