Mr Viral
Way back in 2000, at the very dawn of the 21st century, Nicolas Ghesquière came to the southern French town of Avignon to visit the historic Palais des Papes, which dates from the 14th century. He was there to see a millennium-themed art exhibition, featuring the likes of a Bill Viola installation and a dance performance from Pina Bausch. All of this took place in what is the biggest medieval structure in Europe, a onetime seat of Western Christianity, but which is now better known as a UNESCO site (celebrating its 30th anniversary of that status this year) and home for many decades to a yearly experimental theater festival.
Ghesquière was captivated by the place, which isn’t exactly surprising: Magical things tend to happen in his mind when history, culture, and his own particular brand of creativity and intellectual curiosity collide. Now, some 25 years later, here he is, back in town, with his Louis Vuitton 2026 cruise collection: a fantastic 45-look show which offered a masterly meditation on everything from decorative ancient religious tracts to glammy rock stars, medieval heraldic costuming to the myth of Excalibur, with references galore to King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake. I’d have loved to have asked Ghesquière if he thought Nicholas Clay in the 1981 Excalibur movie was as hot as I did, but I managed to hold back. What I do know is this: That the Bausch performance helped him envisage how to show this cruise collection.
“I wanted to put the audience on stage,” Ghesquière said at a pre-show preview. “This idea of an audience seeing everything from the point of view of the performers. The places I have shown the cruise in the past, like Kyoto, usually have a personal connection,” he went on to say. “It’s rare I ever find a location from scouting. It’s always personal, then it goes through this twisted way of mine thinking about fashion [laughs]. When [famed French actor and theater director] Jean Vilar came here in 1947 to perform, he said [of Palais des Papes], ‘it’s impossible to do theater here, so let’s do theater here!’ And I love that! I’m not saying it’s impossible to do fashion here, but it’s the first time that they’ve done anything like this.”
Ghesquière, it has to be said, is no stranger to making the impossible possible. It has rather been a hallmark of his time at the maison for the last 10-plus years: The elevation of the everyday via couture-level artisanal craft and technological experimentation melded into clothes which are deeply rooted in reality; maybe the most inventive and idiosyncratic notion of reality, but a reality nonetheless. It’s a wardrobe of leather jackets, artisanal knits, kicky short skirts, flowing dresses, and accessories with plenty of attitude, like this cruise’s lavishly embroidered flat peep-toe boots, and the Alma handbag in striped bands of exotic leathers or (be still my beating heart, because this was my personal favorite) with scrolling flowers taken from religious manuscripts dating from the Middle Ages.
The handwork on these clothes was beyond. At the preview, Ghesquière said he wasn’t doing haute couture at Louis Vuitton, but when you’re working at this level, heck, you might as well be. It was there in fairy tale-like shimmer of hand-embroidered sequins and flower petals on dresses cut with the simplicity of oversized tees; the mindboggling intricacy of his instarsia-ed knitwear, like a slithery dress which looked like it was being licked by cartoon strip flames; and the crested fans of leather and metallic chains which bedecked the closing looks of the show.
It’s telling that when researching this collection Ghesquière saw images of a play Vilar did at Palais des Papes where the actors were wearing both stage costumes and their own everyday clothes; a mix of historical fantasy and the then contemporary everyday. Doubly telling when he also mentioned he’d been thinking about today’s music stars, where audiences will come dressed like them to pay homage to their heroes and heroines; a gathering to worship modern-day icons.And triply telling when he mused on how kids today are enthralled with myths and legends, sorcerers and superheroes, via pop culture or the playing of video games. Ghesquière has rightly intuited that fashion these days is both what we wear, with its own quotidian appeal and charm, and what performs as escapist spectacle, and a designer has to be able to navigate a path between both. And if you’re Nicolas Ghesquière, you are able to walk it without putting a foot wrong.
