Having built its Maison from trunks for the travelling elite, it's quite the coup that Louis Vuitton has found a menswear designer who (off his own back) travels more every year than even its most adventurous customers. That's why it was no surprise that Kim Jones plastered his A/W 2014 show set with sandy, hand-painted swirls derived from satellite shots of the Atacama desert, and coloured his wardrobe in the sand and sky tones of the Chilean landscape. Sporting 1990s-inspired wraparound sunglasses, Louis Vuitton's gentleman traveller felt less eccentric than in season's past - clad in broad-banded alpaca stripes or Mondrian patchwork shearling cabans, which carried Jones' distinct talent for humble workwear shapes gone luxe. In a further nod to LV opulence, tufted vicuña made an appearance panelled across rib knits and the collar of a raglan-sleeve aviator jacket, while a passage of camel and cloudy grey cashmere (double face, bien sûr) was masculine minimalism at it's best. Mirror silver kit bags were a tad less subtle, but Jones' refreshing new shapes in the iconic blue Damier should translate swimmingly on the street.
Photography: Anna Stokland/Jason Lloyd-Evans
