Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 19 bags was a definitely Virgil Abloh’s tribute to the monogram, and its travel heritage, but bolder than ever before attempted on men’s bags. And, when it comes to Vuitton’s travel bags, it certainly has to be the Keepall, as well as its oldest travel bags (apart from the trunks), the Steamer – in a myriad of neon hues such as hot pink, yellow, as well as solid colours like grey, and red. The Steamer, too, was adorned with flag prints of countries such as Kazakhstan, USA. Germany, South Korea, and Great Britain. amongst others. But, the most showstopping piece of all, a rainbow-coloured fiberoptic version of the monogrammed Keepall, which actually glows. Yep, I kid you not.

When we think of travelling, backpacks are also the common silhouette of choice, and we saw that on the Men’s FW19 runway as well. Abloh created a variation of the classic monogram canvas backpack, by making it multifunctional, thanks to the addition of zippered compartments on each side, and its front, but street styled it up with a chunky chain embellishment. The same goes for blazers which, for the first time, created in monogram canvas , with various 3-dimensional zippered compartments of various sizes on its front complete with wrist straps dangling off them, and a zip-up closure in the middle. While we’re on the topic of the classic monogram canvas, there are also various SLGs and zip around tech cases with strips of vachetta leather trims and rounded corner pieces which was reminiscent of the Tressage tote.

Apart from the traditional monogram canvas and those in neon, Abloh also created a larger sized monogram, both debased and embossed onto leather and flannel, which appeared to be rather bulbous, giving the bags a squishy sorta look and texture.

The Verdict: a travel and predominantly Men’s collection it may be, by virtue of the fact that most of the bags are oversized, but I’m guessing there may be some ladies out there who would want to purchase some of these bags for themselves. But seriously though, hats off to Abloh for even thinking of the fiberoptic version of the Keepall. Bravo!

Images: @Louis Vuitton