Decadence and Glamour on the Opium Trail: Louis Vuitton S/S 11 |

The bibliography about opium and the controversies and wars surrounding it, is vast and it also includes a 1939 volume entitled The Trail of Opium by Margaret Goldsmith.

Though now the book can obviously be considered as dated, it featured some interesting parts, including the ones about Egyptian, Latin and Greek texts that contained references to the "juice extracted from the poppy", and the chapters about opium smuggling and the so-called “Opium Wars” fought between China and the British Empire.

The exotic origins of opium – used as palliative and poison – and the aura of mystery surrounding opium dens and smokers, often turned the substance into a fascination and an inspiration for many fashion designers.

In 1977 Yves Saint Laurent released a popular fragrance called “Opium” that combined exotic flowers, woods and spices, and launched it hiring an Oriental style ship – the Peking – with Truman Capote at the helm.

Glamour and decadence met and combined in that event, while opium as an inspiration for fashion collections resurfaced every now and then on the runways of the most popular fashion capitals of the world, mainly in connection with Oriental themes.

One of the victims of the recent "opium fascination" was Haider Ackermann during his highly hyped up presentation of menswear designs at last June’s Pitti, where he mixed Visconti with a journey through exotic and faraway locations.

The theme resurfaced somehow also in Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection, mixed with further inspirations.

Opium was indeed one of the components of the collection, the others being the atmospheres and moods of Shanghai in Art Deco times when the city was a prosperous centre for business and pleasure; memories of fashionable icons such as Soong May-ling, wife of President Chiang Kai-shek, and Koo Huilan, wife of China’s foreign minister (both jade and jewellers collectors…) and of popular stars like movie actress Ruan Lingyun, often portrayed wearing the quintessential Chinese garment of the ‘30s in Shanghai, the qipao or cheongsan.

But behind Vuitton there is Marc Jacobs, so every kind of pseudo-cultural reference you could spot in the collection was covered in hedonistic Studio 54 glitter and cleverly repackaged for a younger, wealthy and decadent customer.

Silk qipaos with pagoda sleeves featured traditional flower motifs such as orchids and irises or Art Deco designs and tassels and looked like the perfect dresses for modern samurai disco girls; fringed flapper dresses and metallic tunics with sequin sashes abounded, but so did LV monogrammed lace skirts, shorts and fans, and the entire collection mainly focused on bright colours, from red to orange, pink, yellow, jade, turquoise and gold lame (in a nutshell, shades that turned some of the most over the top Orient-inspired designs into Danilo Donati's costumes from Flash Gordon rather than into perfect Art Deco-inspired creations).

Like the women who populated the streets, clubs and dance halls of Shanghai in the 20s-30s, all the models sported strapped high heels and a permanent wave.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the show the Studio 54-meets-Bob Mackie-meets Ziggy Stardust side of Marc Jacobs prevailed and, pilfering Kansai Yamamoto, Jacobs added another inspiration: suits, tops, dresses and coats with prints of animals (zebras, giraffes, tigers and one occasional panda bear…) in bold and bright acid colours, animal-head sweaters (of the kind that traumatised most of us between the late 70s and the 80s…) and shoes with heels sculpted in the shapes of animal legs (yes, deliriously fascinating, I can't wait to see them in the shops…).

Jacobs' exuberant vision of Art Deco Shanghai and his flashy bad taste brightness isn't definitely new or innovative.

If you leaf through a fashion magazine from the late 70s, say circa 1977, you will find the same shades and nuances enriched here and there by splashes of gold lame; as for the animal inspiration, well, I guess we don't need the umpteenth coat/dress/suit with tiger prints or embroideries à la Yamamoto (View this photo).

Jacobs justified his more decadent fashion sides with a Susan Sontag quote from her 1964 essay entitled "Camp" that states: "The relation between boredom and Camp taste cannot be overestimated. Camp taste is by its nature possible only in affluent societies, in societies or circles capable of experiencing the psychopathology of affluence."

I guess that was supposed to be humorous and, while it doesn't certainly sound too flattering, it perfectly describes the kind of society we are living in, constantly looking for exuberance and excess to cover up its ignorance and superficiality.

In fact I wish Jacobs had used another quote from the same essay to describe himself and the society we are living in, and precisely, the one that says: "The old-style dandy hated vulgarity. The new-style dandy, the lover of Camp, appreciates vulgarity. Where the dandy would be continually offended or bored, the connoisseur of Camp is continually amused, delighted."