Virgil Abloh's final collection for Louis Vuitton unveiled at Paris Fashion Week

The curtain has come down on the designer's extraordinary era at the house

For his last collection, Virgil Abloh created a baby blue silk jacket and shorts look, finished with a jewel and high top trainers. Photo: Louis Vuitton

Deliberately blurring gender lines, Abloh created a long velvet skirt, worn with a skiing jacket. Photo: Louis Vuitton

Abloh created a series of male brides, with this model wearing a layered tulle skirt with a varsity jacket. Photo: Louis Vuitton

A model carries a bag shaped like a bouquet. Photo: Louis Vuitton

Virgil Abloh's final collection for Louis Vuitton had sharp-shouldered pieces. Photo: Louis Vuitton

The collection included looks with angel wings. Photo: Louis Vuitton

Breaking from the norm, Abloh offered a male 'bride', complete with logo-ed veil. Courtesy EPA

Three models present the final collection, featuring lace, graffiti and silk, by designer Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton. EPA

In head-to-toe florals, a model presents a look from Louis Vuitton's autumn/winter 2022 collection. Reuters

Mixing a silk waistcoat, logoed jeans and a paint can as a bag, is this look from the final collection by Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton. EPA

Abloh created a coat from a deconstructed track suit jacket. EPA

A look made from Giorgio de Chirico’s work 'The Melancholy of Departure'. EPA

There was still space for sharp Louis Vuitton tailoring in the show. EPA

A sharp-shouldered box jacket and logoed jeans. EPA

A royal purple silk suit. EPA

A detail from Virgil Abloh's last show for Louis Vuitton. EPA

Luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton presented its autumn/winter 2022 menswear collection at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday – the last by late designer Virgil Abloh – bringing down the curtain on an extraordinary era.

At the helm of Louis Vuitton’s menswear for eight seasons, the designer, who died of cancer in November aged only 41, managed to stage something of a coup during that short time, bringing in dazzling ideas and a sense of streetwise fearlessness to the house.

Abloh's collection, named Louis Dreamhouse, was unveiled on a stage scattered with the remnants of a home. A staircase, an empty bed and even a long dining table lay around, while above it all hung a clock, stopped at 8pm. In true Abloh style, the show used both models and dancers – almost 90 in total – to create a living tableau and deliver looks that ranged from the sharpest of tailoring to renegade streetwear.

Abloh was fastidious about recording every facet of his ideas, as if aware his time for getting his vision across was limited. The show was accompanied by 38 pages of notes packed with ideas, drawings and quotes. One, in particular, summed up his hybrid approach for Louis Vuitton, blending suiting with streetwear.

“Is a man in tailoring trustworthy? Is a man in ‘streetwear’ less trustworthy? Does a man, who wears a suit by day, rave in a tracksuit by night?” he asked.

Adept at looking past traditional boundaries and with an unnerving instinct for grabbing attention, in this final show, Abloh sent out a bag shaped like a bouquet of flowers, sharp-shouldered dandies, long velvet skirts and even closed the show with "bridal" looks, in which male models wore hooped skirts and veils. Yet, in between, came the real treasures.

There was a beautifully cut, button-down coat in burnt chocolate, finished with a gleaming jewel and lilac shirt; a tracksuit jacket exploded out into a side fastening coat, complete with trailing sleeves; and a loose tracksuit rendered in lush, plush velvet, with huge pockets on the shins.

There was a silk velvet jacket worn over a floral patterned shirt and trousers, and a series of looks made from Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico’s work The Melancholy of Departure, because, according to Abloh, it summed up “the principle that ‘old’ ideas should be invigorated with value and presented alongside the ‘new,’ because both are equal in worth.”

Abloh sent out looks finished with giant angel wings, or adorned with a sketched grim reaper, as a bleak reminder of the relentless, ticking clock we all face.

As this final collection was revealed, to a soundtrack by Tyler, the Creator, and played by the Chineke! Orchestra, it was impossible not to be aware of the huge talent we have lost in Abloh.