JACOBS STOPS THE SHOW

Last week, on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, at Siam Commercial Bank Talad Noi branch, an elegant building that has long been home to the first local commercial bank in Thailand, Louis Vuitton presented one of the most glamorous collections in recent history.
The showcase, organised by Dinash Kandiah, vice president, communications, of Louis Vuitton Asia-Pacific, gave Bangkok’s fashionistas a glimpse of Marc Jacobs’ Autumn and Winter 2012-2013 collection for men and women.
Inspired by the days when railway carriages were pulled by steam engines – the designer even brought along a gleaming hand-made locomotive to the Louvre during Paris Fashion Week -the collection was as much a playful nod to the house’s past as a provocative look forwards to the future of fashion.
For the women’s collection, the first statement was the new silhouette. The A-line gracefully elongated many of the looks, with coats layered skirts and skirts over trousers – allowing proportions to retain lightness and elegance.
Some key looks included the coat’s narrow shoulders and sleeves, balanced by exaggerated rounded lapels and outsize jewel buttons subtly alluding to Louis Vuitton’s Monogram flowers, which served as an alternative to jewellery. Another icon, the Damier patter, put in a discreet appearance on an A-line skirt and corset style tunic, with each square joined by jewel stones, in turn fixed by four tiny beads so not stitching is visible.
The contrast between the simplicity of line and complexity of embellishment was ratcheted up further by brocades of hologram sequins in leaf-like or geometric motifs on tunics, dresses and coats with double faced Shetland lapels or ostrich skin sleeves.
The high heels of shoes were also eye-catching and inspired by Mary Janes or traditional men’s Oxfords. In crocodile, ostrich, or calfskin, they played on proportion with an exaggerated square toe, sometimes accentuated by a contrasting toecap. Slim straps were fastened with large round jewel buttons.
The bags, which included Louis Vuitton’s historic hat boxes, luxuriously revisited in crocodile, added to an extraordinary array of bags in which each traveller might pack her most treasured possessions.
The men’s collection was inspired by a dialogue between the great cities of Paris and Tokyo, with their mythologies and fashion luggage, at the heart of the collection. Each was explored through their contemporary influence on Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Studio and style director, Kim Jones, working under Jacobs.
Jones stated in the press release that he was looking at the impact of and on French fashion by people from the outside, particularly the idea of an American in Paris.
This season sees a focus on the bold, graphic line, and silhouette of the clothing, with a mix and match attitude to the Western converging with Eastern subtlety in fabric, shape, technique, silhouette, and style. The collection was divided into three themes: In “Paris: from Here to Eternity”, classic, elegant menswear was inflected with a subtle
 Japanese influence such as a Western shirt and tie and a silk seersucker jinbei or kimono shirt, which at first appeared like a waistcoat. The look was teamed with a nubuck crocodile Derby shoe with metal toe detail and Epi leather travelling bag.
The second theme “Toyko: The Chase” saw the silhouette of the clothing change to the more voluminous style of the ’80s, inflected by the military influence of technical clothing mixed with tailoring traditions. The last essential theme was “Night: I Feel Love,” a play on the traditional dinner suit with a reinforcing of the notion of East meets West. Traditional Japanese Kimono fabrics were used throughout in Western style tailoring.