After being unveiled as Louis Vuitton‘s brand ambassadors last month, K-Pop behemoths BTS starred in a new spin-off show set in Seoul that built on the AW21 collection Virgil Abloh presented back in January. With an accompanying film (below) directed by emerging Korean filmmaker Jeon Go-woon, this collection riffed on the idea of travel and global connectivity, the raison d’etre of a brand whose origins began with luggage cases.

The unexpected spin-off echoes the voyage format introduced by Abloh in 2020 shortly after beginning at Vuitton, effectively allowing collections to travel across the globe and be moulded by their destinations. Not only has the initiative allowed Vuitton to maintain close ties with their diverse international community of devout followers, it has encouraged cross-cultural exchanges that re-shape collections in accordance with local customs and aesthetics.

Expanding on the themes presented last January – from the writings of James Baldwin to the paintings of Lawrence Weiner and the silhouettes of vocational archetypes – this new collection doubled down on notions of global connectivity. And it was new – of the 41 looks presented 34 were conceived specially for this show, while the BTS crew wore seven looks that had originally been presented back in January. Mere hours after going live the film had already racked up millions of views, delivering on the promise of “very exciting projects” hinted at by Abloh when unveiling BTS as ambassadors last March. Here’s hoping it’s the first of many.