By Axel Keppler

Sept. 28, 2020

On Aug. 6, 39 year-old Virgil Abloh, the creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear, presented the LV Spring/Summer 2021 collection in Shanghai. The collection, featuring striking colors, odd proportions and whimsical animals, quickly received much criticism for its resemblance to the work of 63 year-old historic and established Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck.

For the entirety of his career, Van Beirendonck has carved out a niche for himself in the fashion industry; he questions socially accepted portrayals of masculinity, wearable fashion, and adulthood through loud colors, oftentimes playfully absurd proportions, and in your face iconography. It is this complete uniqueness of Van Beirendonck’s work that has made Abloh’s accused plagiarism stick out like a sore thumb. Van Beirendonck stated that “throughout all these years in fashion, I have patiently built up a signature language… that language is mine.” No designer has ever gone into Van Beirendonck’s realm and attempted to copy him because the designs are simply too characteristic of Van Beirendonck himself - that is, until last month.

Abloh is largely accused due to the presence of imaginary animated characters in the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2021 collection. These characters, which Abloh refers to as “Z oooom with friends” are “documenting [him] and [his] motley crew of friends.” These characters which include a Louis Vuitton-adorned bird, lion, dog, flower, scarecrow, and dragon, could be seen throughout the collection of garments as well as on the runway decorations themselves. But unfortunately for Abloh, imaginary animal-like characters have long been a staple of Van Beirendonck’s work. For example, a smiling alien figure who Van Beirendonck refers to as Puk Puk, has been present in his work as early as 1990. In the past 30 years, Beirendonck has expanded on this by creating countless other characters for his brand Wild & Lethal Trash, which played a big part in the rave culture of the ‘90s.

Following the show, Van Beirendonck took to Instagram to voice his accusations. This included a post captioned, “I HATE FASHION COPYCATS.” Furthermore, when referencing his signature design language, Van Beirendonck argued that “[Abloh] takes it, makes a copy of it. You can reinterpret things, do them in a different way. But this is just embarrassing.” Abloh’s response to the accusations have generally been dismissive and vague. But because Van Beirendonck does not wish to take this to court, we may never know whether Abloh truly co pied him. The fashion industry will continue to turn its gears of production and this story of plagiarism, accusations, and feud between the young and the established will most likely become forgotten.