Louis Vuitton's women's design director Julie de Libran said her inspiration this season was "the French girl." As a card-carrying member of that tribe, she knows the subject well. "She's a sophisticated bohemian," de Libran went on. "She likes to mix and match, and combine comfort and sensuality." Her shoe of choice is a clog or a loafer or a flat sandal.
To start, de Libran showed a series of denim pieces: a great-looking double-breasted pantsuit, a drop-waist chambray dress topped by a white satin blazer, and a jacket and trousers that combined nubby indigo tweed with leather. Denim might not traditionally be the most Gallic of fabrics, but what she did with it earned the French appellation chic.
Cool is cool in both English and French, and it was the guiding principle for everything from the T-shirt-and-mini combination that the designer dubbed Vuitton's "new suit" to the double-faced men's coat she tossed over a vintage-feeling floral frock. De Libran has a subtle way of synthesizing ideas Marc Jacobs introduces on the runway. This collection's prettiest dress, in a black-and-white wallpaper motif, looked like a real-world riff on the embroidered tulle showstopper Kate Moss modeled for Fall.
