Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, is no stranger to destination shows – he has presented past Cruise collections at venues including Rio de Janeiro’s Niteròi Contemporary Art Museum and Kyoto’s Miho Museum. This time, he took his fashion vision to a landmark that was more local but no less entrancing than past venues: Cergy-Pontoise, a town to the north-west of Paris. Specifically, Axe Majeur, a monumental sculpture park by the late Israeli artist Dani Karavan, the central feature of which is a striking red footbridge – a ready-made catwalk.
Ghesquière used this made-for-Instagram runway as a launch pad for an energetic show full of ideas for the after-times and everything else we’ve been waiting for. The collection of abbreviated looks included minidresses with drawstring hemlines, jackets with motocross styling, chain necklines and visible scuba zips.
The dresses, jackets and A-line skirts were printed with fantastical scenes, fusing interplanetary landscapes, travelators and basketball courts. It was kitschy and otherworldly, and when styled with flat white boots held a mod appeal. Some of it, especially the coats and jackets with disc-shaped pockets, called to mind the work of Space Age-inspired designers André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin (the latter died last year).
Most promising were a series of crystal-slathered minidresses with oversized chain-detail harnesses – like wearable outer-space disco balls. These are clothes to make the wearer feel they could go places. Any place they want, which is the point. As the house said in a press release, the collection aims to ‘touch infinity’ with a series of ‘proud, positive looks’.
‘One needs nothing more than the most beautiful of passports: creation,’ it continued. ‘As ever, it is unlimited and free.’
By Emily Cronin
