Christopher Nemeth was always Kim Jones' favorite London designer. The way he mixed Savile Row and the street anticipated Jones' own aesthetic. But, outside Japan, where Nemeth lived from 1986 until his death in 2010, he was largely overlooked. Jones set out to fix that state of affairs today. Utilizing to the max the creative muscle of Louis Vuitton, he saluted the man who was, on some level, his mentor.
The tribute was absolute. Nellee Hooper, a friend of Nemeth's, made a soundtrack of his favorite songs; Judy Blame, Nemeth's compadre in the legendary House of Beauty and Culture collective, created the gorgeous bricolage that stood for jewelry; Nemeth's widow and daughters consulted with Jones on the details.
Before he died, Nemeth arranged his archives meticulously, which made it that much easier for the equally meticulous Jones to spread the Nemeth love. He chose four original prints from those archives and reproduced them in a variety of media wide enough to highlight the extraordinary craftsmanship of Vuitton's ateliers. So there were a shearling coat laser-etched in a Nemeth pattern, a bonded cashmere sweatshirt embossed with cork (unfathomable!), wool/cashmere denim masterfully overlaid with paper patterns, and a substantial—and very limited-edition—suitcase in a flocked design.
The most winning aspect of this whole thing was, of course, that it looked so fresh and energetic. You can honor your heroes all you like, but if your respect curdles into worthiness? Well then, it's scarcely worth the effort. Jones has too much experience to fall into that trap. He has rejigged Vuitton's menswear so that it skews young and stylish. There was a sense of gap-year sportiness that jelled nicely with Vuitton's world-in-motion heritage. The parkas, duffle coats, jean jackets, and Crombies had a reassuring classicism, but God truly is in the details—or at least in the hardware—at Jones' Vuitton, so you could picture some future civilization digging the LV buttons out of the ashpit of history and marveling at them.
As much as Jones is a creator, he also has an eye on the commercial prize. It's been 130 years since Vuitton opened its first store outside France, and it was—naturally—in London. So celebrating Nemeth as the unsung Best of British made sense on that level. But it was also a reminder of another Vuitton throwback that yielded massive dividends for the company. Marc Jacobs decided attention must be paid to Stephen Sprouse, and look what happened there. In an ideal world, the visual iconography of Christopher Nemeth will soon be as familiar as Sprouse's graffiti prints.
