Who Is Colm Dillane, Louis Vuitton’s New Guest Designer?

On Jan. 10, it was announced that KidSuper founder Colm Dillane will guest design Louis Vuitton’s upcoming Fall/Winter 2023 collection. He joins a collective that includes stylist Ib Kamara, filmmakers Michel and Olivier Gondry, and visual director Lina Kutsovskaya. The Fall/Winter 2023 presentation will be the first time that a Louis Vuitton men’s show does not feature any “specific influences from Virgil,” Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Michael Burke told WWD.

The announcement comes a week ahead of Louis Vuitton’s Jan. 19 presentation. While many are still eagerly awaiting to see who will succeed Abloh at Louis Vuitton, it appears that the house’s interim solution is a series of guest designers rather than immediately appointing a new artistic director for its men’s line. While LVMH labels like Dior have consistently invited guest designers to create collections, Dillane’s upcoming presentation is a first for Louis Vuitton. To be clear, Dillane has been tapped as a temporary placeholder, not a true successor. Louis Vuitton’s official statement declared he was “embedded into the men’s studio.” 

“You never think a brand as big as Louis Vuitton would be willing to take such a risk,” Dillane said in an interview with the New York Times. “I thought there would be so many rules about what I was or wasn’t allowed to do, but I was given the candy shop. They let me have a hand in every aspect—clothing, bags, shoes, accessories. It’s wild.”

When Dillane first applied to be part of the Paris Fashion Week calendar, he was rejected three times before finally being approved in 2019. For KidSuper, he has only presented in-person in Paris three times. Next week, he will be showing his designs on the runway for arguably the biggest luxury house in the world. 

“Even when I was applying for Paris Fashion Week, I almost did it as a joke because I thought it was impossible,” he told the CFDA in a 2022 interview. 

Ahead of the presentation, we decided to take a look at Dillane’s history up to this point. From formulating one of New York City’s most inventive clothing brands from a blue building in Brooklyn to building runway collections for historic high fashion houses, he has grown a lot over the past 15 years. Learn about Louis Vuitton’s new guest designer, below.