It was rumoured and now it’s official: Supreme are doing a Louis Vuitton collab. 

Murmurings of a potential collaboration between the two fashion giants began two weeks ago when Supreme fan account @mrbld posted a photo of a white t-shirt embossed with the LV monogram and the streetwear brand’s iconic box logo – an image which was allegedly obtained by a model at a casting for the show. Thankfully for Vuitton, nothing is more successful at generating hype around a product launch than a leak.

This morning, just hours before the house’s AW17 menswear show, Vuitton verified the news in an interview with WWD. Here, LV’s artistic director of men’s ready-to-wear, Kim Jones, discusses Supreme’s relevance, as well as his personal relationship with the brand which stretches back to the 90s.

“You can’t have the conversation of New York menswear without Supreme right now, because it’s such a massive global phenomenon,” he says.  “I used to work when I was at college unpacking boxes of Supreme at a company in London that distributed it when it was just starting out, so it’s something I’ve known all along in my life. I just feel that the strength of their graphic versus the strength of the Louis Vuitton graphic, and that kind of Pop Art feeling – it works together perfectly.”

Of course this isn’t the first high-end collaboration that Supreme has undertaken – the brand has previously partnered with Comme des Garçons shirt, Undercover and, most recently, Aquascutum. None of these brands has brought those collections to the runway, however, which is what Vuitton will be doing this afternoon.

“It’s just forward-thinking. People don’t really expect those sorts of things and I think that’s what’s nice,” Jones said. “Actually, I think it’s the modern thing to do. Everyone’s talking about it and no one’s doing it, and we’re doing it.”

Catch the Louis Vuitton AW17 menswear show here at 1.30pm (GMT) and stay tuned for coverage of the collection and this collaboration.