Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton presented the Spring/Summer 2022 men’s collection with a real movie.

Directed by Mahfuz Sultan, the film is titled Amen Break, which is also the name of a precise drum solo consisting of four bars that decisively changed the music of the 20th century by becoming the basis of hip hop and Jungle.

The film reflects on a historic moment in black art and culture, when hip hop and electronic music were generated by the same spark and then spread throughout the world.

Music is certainly a fundamental part of the film, the incipit consists of a monologue that accompanies the models who walk and dance in a sort of desert and then vanish inside what seems to be a portal, to reappear in a cold and apparently dystopian world dominated by birch trees. Catharsis, symbolism and metaphors seem to be the key words to interpret the film.

Virgil and Mahfuz construct a reality that smacks of a dream but is an interpretation of the life of Lupe Fiasco, a rapper originally from Chicago’s Southside who grew up in a tough neighborhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Lupe Fiasco’s dad was a drummer and a member of the Black Panther Party, who worked to give a valid alternative to the street to those kids who seemed not to be able to even dream of it, so he organized open classes in martial arts saving a lot of kids in the neighborhood and helped his son to transmit values such as peace, understanding and responsibility to the new generations.

Amen Break is the story “of a father and son united by loss, traversing a dream world to deliver a message”. 

On the notes of “Dassai Menace” by Goldie, interpreter of the film along with GZA, Saul Williams, Issa Perica, Kandis Williams and many other talents, we can take a look at the real protagonists, the clothes. 

Sweaters, pants, jackets, outerwear are reinvented in their use, formal and essential are mixed but the shapes remain immediately recognizable.
Black, red, green and electric blue are the dominant colors, liveliness is mixed with color block and black and white damier, LV logo covers PVC jackets.
Tailored jackets are embellished with waist belts, pleated skirts are matched with sweaters while on trench coats we find contrasting vests.

Among other things, has not gone unnoticed – to put it mildly – the collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Nike with a series of Air Force 1 contaminated by the typical stylistic features of the French fashion house while paying homage to the hip hop culture that formed him; the Air Force 1 represent, since their first release in 1982 a statement of hip hop culture and American street culture and not only. Virgil has also posted on his Instagram profile the creative process behind it all.

Sustainability is another key theme of the collection: the materials used for clothing and accessories such as bags in washed canvas obtained from certified canton.

This collection helps support UNICEF projects in Ghana in partnership with Louis Vuitton for UNICEF launched Generation Unlimited, a program based on promoting local entrepreneurship and empowering and nurturing young Ghanaians.

Below you can see the film Amen Break by Mahfuz Sultan that introduces us to Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2022 men’s collection.