The sneakers are just one piece of 1989 Studio’s upcoming show, which is gearing up to be its biggest to date. To bring it to life, Jordan worked with PlayLab, the creative studio who handled the production of nearly all of Abloh’s Louis Vuitton shows. Jordan says he and PlayLab founder Archie Lee Coates IV immediately connected. Needless to say, he’s excited to show the world what the two have cooked up on Sunday.
“When you finally feel that you found someone that understands you creatively, that’s another thing that I could never describe to you,” says Jordan. “And then pair that with the person who has done all of the production for Virgil at LV, so you know that they’re capable of realizing whatever you can imagine. Archie has gone above and beyond.”
He describes what we will see walking down the runway as the third phase of 1989 Studio. Its debut collection channeled classic Americana with western-inspired graphics and workwear like tobacco-colored double knee pants. The second, which consisted of all-black looks incorporating leather moto pants and a graphic akin to Givenchy’s iconic Rottweiler T-shirt, was him teleporting us back to 2013 when he was living in Paris.
For the latest installment, Jordan describes it as senior year of high school in Santa Monica. Campaign images give a peak into what that entails, jeans with Evisu-esque leather panels across the back of the legs, mohair sweaters, cropped white T-shirts, and a graphic that fuses the logos of the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers (Jordan split between the two cities in the 2010s). His plan is to take the bits from each phase that resonated most with customers and fuse them together to define the brand’s future collections.
Ahead of this weekend’s show, we spoke with Jordan to learn more about the debut of his LV Don-inspired sneaker, working with PlayLab, the future of 1989 Studio, and more.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What makes the Louis Vuitton Don so special to you?
I was heavy into Kanye at the time when I was in college. My first camp out for a pair of sneakers were the Nike Air Yeezy 1s. The first time I met Ye was around the time when Graduation released. So, I was very heavy into the world of Ye. When those shoes came out, I had a personal shopper at the LV store in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue. She handled all of the VIPs and the celebrities. So, for me to even have that contact and for her to text me…like I’m a college kid [Laughs.] She would text me the PDFs of what’s coming through the store before it got there.
Me being immersed in that whole world, it was just like, “Yo, I have to have these shoes.” That was me at the beginning of my experience with the luxury market. I was introduced to Barney’s around that time. That’s when we were wearing Balenciaga Arenas. So, that time just really stuck with me. And funny enough, I didn’t even end up buying the shoes. I probably didn’t even have the bread or whatever the case may have been. I should have copped multiple pairs in retrospect. But I slept and it was like one of the biggest decisions that I regret. [Laughs.]
So it’s much more personal than just referencing an iconic pair of sneakers.
For sure. It’s very personal. I was obsessed with that shoe. So I was like, “Yo, if I can’t find these shoes for less than five racks, I’m gonna make ‘em.”