Speaking about the collaboration with Timberland backstage after the show with FN sister publication WWD, Williams said the team up “just makes sense” given the brand’s roots in the hip-hop community. “It’s something that we love, but at the same time, whether you’re, like, in the ‘hood or you’re like somewhere in a factory, Timberlands, they last long,” Williams said. “If you’re going to spend your disposable income at a time like this, it needs to be for something that’s actually really going to last.”
Aside from the Timberland collab, Williams leaned into the Western theme of his fall ’24 show with a range of cowboy boots inspired by the work boots of the American west. Created alongside the expert Western bootmaker Goodyear in Texas and finished at Vuitton’s Rochambeau Ranch factory, the new LV Texan is an authentic cowboy boot that features stitch and appliqué decorations that blend Louis Vuitton’s iconography with that of the American West.
The LV Rodeo cowboy shoe materializes as a harnessed lace-up and a cowboy-belt buckled monk shoe. And, a streamlined round-toe Western boot, the LV Rider, appears in croc, python, ostrich, suede and cow hair.
Other shoe highlights this season also includes the LV Footprint slipper with its paw-embossed sole takes on a new furry manifestation. The materials of the collections are applied to high and low versions of the LV Snow boot and the LV Maxi Trainer. The collection also debuts a new technical rubber boot in the Damoflage pattern with a checkered sole.
This season is Williams’ third collection for Louis Vuitton men’s following his appointment early last year. After planting his brand codes last season, including a big push on the Speedy and a new pixelated pattern dubbed Damoflage, Williams set about exploring the seemingly endless capabilities of the Vuitton ateliers with Western-inflected pieces that were showcases for high-end craftsmanship.
The show was bookended with a performance by the Native Voices of Resistance, a group comprised of singers from Native American nations across North America.
“I felt like when you see cowboys portrayed, you see only a few versions,” Williams told WWD backstage. “You never really get to see what some of the original cowboys really look like. They look like us, they look like me. They look Black, they look Native American.”
“Telling your story and telling your people’s story as best you can, and doing it candidly and with love, that’s an overwhelming feeling to kind of pull it off, and it felt like we did — like the feeling in the room just felt like a whole lot of love. And that’s what the goal was, and I thank God that we got a chance to do that,” he added.
