Following the news that Louis Vuitton will be going ahead with a men's show in Shanghai and Tokyo later this summer, Virgil Abloh is inaugurating the new Spring/Summer 2021 menswear collection with an animated short film ‘The adventures of Zoooom with friends.’

The film – which serves as a prelude to the SS21 shows – depicts colorful characters enduring trials and tribulations at Paris Fashion Week. Developed by Reggieknow, the film features an original score from The Sa-Ra Creative Partners.

Speaking to WWD, Abloh reflected on how the pandemic was tailoring his approach to fashion for a post-lockdown world, "with COVID-19, I’m not gonna lie, as I’m sitting in hoodies and T-shirts every day and we’re sitting in our house, how can you switch your brain on to fashion [...] It’s like the restaurant is an essential component to fashion, or the communal gathering or vacation. I start there when I think of what fashion the world may need. And now that the restaurants are opening up, you can sort of see it’s a little bit of a process to get there."

The post-lockdown Louis Vuitton shows will also see them being made available to the public, Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton confirms "the fundamental idea is that we’re getting rid of the straitjacket the industry has been operating under."

In a further comment to WWD, Abloh expressed his intentions for the new collection to be seen by a macro-audience, which deviates from the more typical air of exclusivity that permeates luxury fashion. “The collection is now designed with the idea of it being broadcast on hundreds of thousands of screens, so that’s having an effect on the clothes. I look at my studio as a mix between Disney and an art-making studio," he explained.

The new collection totals 75 new looks, 25 of which are made from recycled materials, and 25 looks repurposed from the previous collection.

Check out the new Spring/Summer 2021 film from Louis Vuitton Men's here.