Spike Lee is one of the most underrated style icons of the last half-century.
The acclaimed film director has always had an eclectic and off-beat personal aesthetic: from his chunky glasses to love of colour and wild baseball caps, Lee’s always been one of a kind. Indeed, he arguably kickstarted modern sneaker culture with his 90s ads for Nike, featuring his iconic tagline, “it’s gotta be da shoes.”
His latest look is one of his best yet, and one that proves that entering your seventh decade doesn’t mean you have to tone down your dress sense. Hell, it’s probably a good excuse to go wild.
In France for the 74th Cannes Film Festival, Lee shared his red carpet outfit to Instagram: a vibrant pink Louis Vuitton double-breasted suit designed by Virgil Abloh, complemented with pink LV sunglasses and a dapper black fedora.
The most exciting part of his fit (at least for sneakerheads) is actually what’s on his feet: a very special pair of Air Jordan 1s. Created specifically for Lee for this event, these rare kicks feature a red, white and blue colour scheme (a reference to the French flag) and feature Lee’s likeness on the tongues.
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Pairing a suit with some rare Nikes for red carpet stunting is standard Spike Lee at this stage. You might recall the outfit he wore to the Oscars last year: a purple and yellow suit paired with some Nike Kobe 9 Elites; a dedication to the recently departed basketball superstar Kobe Byrant.
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It’s extremely fitting that Lee would rock an Abloh-designed suit to Cannes. Both Lee and Abloh are trailblazing African-American creatives in their respective fields and both have made a big splash in France: Lee’s actually the Cannes jury president this year – the first black man ever – and Abloh is the first black man to ever head up one of Europe’s luxury houses.
We just hope that when we turn 64, like Lee has, that we’ll be confident and stylish enough to pull off a suit like this…