Moroccan Director Hicham Lasri Films Louis Vuitton 2020 Mens Collection in Chefchaouen
Moroccan director, screenwriter, and producer, Hicham Lasri is lauded as the creative genius behind Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Wear advertising campaign released in spring-summer 2020. The collection was filmed by Larsi using the backdrop of Morocco’s blue-washed city Chefchaouen and the Northern Moroccan city of Tangier.
Titled “Footprints,” Abloh and Vuitton headed to Morocco for the project, which was captured by photographer Viviane Sassen. The main motif of the SS20 collection is the flower, the theme shown throughout the campaign. According to Louis Vuitton, the activity of picking flowers, which is showcased in the editorial, is “a naturally occurring metaphor for multiplicity.”
The recurrent notion of boyhood is also highlighted for SS20 as the premise for the seasonal Louis Vuitton men’s campaign. This is portrayed through the imagery of models flying kites along the beach. Virgil Abloh debuted Louise Vuitton’s SS20 collection at Paris Fashion Week in June 2019.
Video footage of the collection shot in Chefchaouen shows the range of menswear. The models and talent starring in the project were scouted locally in Morocco. Vuitton dubbed the campaign as being both “nonconforming and unapologetic as it highlights global youth using Morocco’s blue city, as the backdrop.”
Lasri was born in Casablanca in 1977. After obtaining a degree in law he began to pursue a career as a playwright. He became the protégé of Nabil Ayouch and wrote his first screenplay in 2002 for one of his films, La légende d’Arhaz, and he was also the screenwriter of Lahcen Zinoun for La beauté éparpillée released in 2006. Thereafter continuing to work as a director for Ayouch’s company, Lasri produced his first solo feature film “The End,” produced by Lamia Chraibi and her company La Prod. His second feature movie in 2013, C’est eux les chiens, made the parallel between the Moroccan riots of 1981 and the February 20th, movement. At the young age of 32, Mohammed Larsi’s films were continuing to make headway on the global stage through screenings that took place at the Cannes Film Festival among other international festivals worldwide. At 42, Larsi has another success, having participated in a global fashion campaign of LV.