Louis Vuitton menswear channels digital age in Paris show

PARIS (AP) — Singer Rosalía stunned Louis Vuitton’s guests at the Paris house’s dramatic, digital age-themed menswear show Thursday owing to a surprise reveal, atop a vintage 1980s yellow sedan, in shades and hooded jacket.

The boundary-breaking Spanish star delivered an electrifying soulful performance during the runway collection, delving in and out of a childhood movie set co-created by Michel Gondry, director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

As she sang, the Grammy winner darted around awe-struck celebrities, including J-Balvin, Usher, Kit Harington, J-Hope and Lucien Laviscount, who all gave the spectacle rousing applause.

Here are some highlights of Thursday’s fall-winter 2023-24 displays:

VUITTON GOES MILLENNIAL

Since the death of Virgil Abloh in 2021, the Louis Vuitton men’s studio has taken over the brand's creative control.

Yet Thursday’s set — a vintage childhood home recreated inside the Louvre’s oldest courtyard — was in continuity with Abloh’s coming-of-age styles that have defined his Vuitton tenure from 2018-2021.

This season, the youthful studio team and guest designer Colm Dillane channeled growing up “as members of the first generation raised on super-connectivity.” References to the digital age thus abounded in the creative and tailoring-heavy display — which was most successful when it kept it simple.

Patterns evoked encrypted computer coding, while handwritten notes — which are deemed obsolete in today’s world — were upcycled to produce a surreal white suit and top hat look whose façade was constructed entirely of the note paper.

The collection at times felt reliant on gimmicks, such as pixelated apples on an otherwise beautiful round-shouldered wool coat.

The best looks were...