The Louvre is the crossroads of the world—one of the globe’s most popular museums with more than 7 million people visiting annually. It’s closed on Tuesdays, but tonight several hundred guests were invited to the Cour Marly in the Richelieu wing to watch Louis Vuitton’s models wind their way through the 17th- and 18th-century sculptures wearing Nicolas Ghesquière’s new collection. It’s a first-ever for the Louvre. Shows have been held on its grounds and in the sublevel in years past, but never in its central sculpture atrium. Ghesquière said Vuitton was invited by the museum to do so, which gives a sense of the company’s place in French culture. “Today, when some people make us want to believe that the frontiers are stronger and stronger,” Ghesquière said, presumably alluding to the immigration crisis and further from home, talk of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, “I think fashion has always broken those frontiers. Especially in Paris—it’s the land of foreign designers; it’s so multicultural. Being in the Louvre where everyone is welcome, where there is no limit of culture, of nationality, is a strong message.”
Ghesquière tried to re-create that sense of boundarylessness with the collection, which was less a directional seasonal message than it was a wardrobe of options for city living, with the über-luxe accents expected from a luxury goods house of this level. The denim, for example, wasn’t denim but a wool treated with multiple techniques to create a patina of faded blue jeans. Leather, of course, was central to the story; it came super polished, as in the sleek show-opening black coat, or crackled to give the impression of age and wear. Fur, a relatively unexplored material for Ghesquière chez Louis Vuitton, got special attention. He paired his short-sleeved, patchworked jackets with the collection’s relaxed, cropped flares, but they’ll look great thrown over an evening dress. As for evening, he took a big step away from the dramatic “naked dresses” of Spring, opting instead for knee-length slip dresses elaborately worked with pleats, lace insets, sheer panels, and fabrics with contrasting patterns, but with results that looked less try-hard. The best looks here—a streamlined gray coat belted over “jeans,” an asymmetrical ribbed sweater worn with tech fabric pants in a glass finish—captured that offhand sense of chic. All of this was accessorized with snub-nosed, low-heeled boots of varying shaft heights: highly practical for forging new frontiers, or simply confronting the harsh realities of modern life.
