One of the most hotly anticipated brand tie-ups of the year, a collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Supreme, has finally landed.
Since Louis Vuitton's menswear designer Kim Jones unveiled the joint collection during men's fashion week in January, the buzz surrounding the collaboration has reached fever pitch. Millennials, fashionistas and those with an eye for the inevitable resale value, have all been straining at the leash to get their hands on a combination of Vuitton's quality and Supreme's savvy street style.
Since its launch as a skate label in 1994, Supreme has mastered the art of using weekly product drops and pop-ups to build hype. The result is a dedicated following that recently spilled out onto the streets of Bejing, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, Seoul, Miami, Sydney and London as crowds scrabbled to get into the Vuitton stores in these key cities.
Devotees of Supreme were keen to get their hands on a piece of Vuitton craftsmanship ( the entire collection is being produced by the French fashion house), while the well-heeled Louis Vuitton crowd could buy into the counterculture allure that Supreme yields.
Despite the efforts that both brands made in trying to keep the launch date top secret, giving only two hours' notice in each city, somehow people were queuing from 2am outside Vuitton's London store in the Strand. Within a few hours, queues were stretching around the block and security were imposing ID checks and bag searches. Timed visits were in place to limit each customer to just 15 minutes and six items.
However, if the endless posts on Instagram are to be believed, many had a successful day, and it seems the most popular items were the Supreme x Louis Vuitton box logo T-shirts (Dh1,782), a hoodie with an all-over logo (Dh3,435) and the Keepall 45 duffel bag (Dh13,410).
