Nicolas Ghesquière, like a lot of us, has been thinking about the line that separates the digital and the real worlds. Last season, he landed on the side of the virtual. Today, at the final show of the Fall collections, he cast his eye to the street. Not just any street; at a preview, he called his new Louis Vuitton collection “geolocated.” The location he had in mind was Beaubourg, the famous Centre Pompidou in the fourth arrondissement, and the large square in front of it, which he described as a “melting pot of different tribes coming together,” and “a place where expression is free to be.”
The idea for this collection was to re-create those various “tribes” or subcultures—before Instagram (and the Internet, more broadly) flattened experience and made us all look the same. It’s a daunting, even quixotic task for the creative leader of a renowned global brand to set for himself—after all, the goal is to get as many people in LV as possible. But Ghesquière seemed to relish the making of this collection, which he said came together in a very fluid way: “When I arrived, the question was: ‘Is Louis Vuitton only about basics?’” Apparently, the sales results are telling him no; customers are buying pieces that are expressive of individuality.
The conjuring of those Beaubourg-ian subcultures began today with a re-creation of the Renzo Piano– and Richard Rogers–designed Centre Pompidou in the Louvre’s Cour Carrée—a museum within a museum. (Vuitton will actually donate a part of the set to Piano’s archive.) The models walked the perimeter, with its metal scaffolding and internal workings painted primary colors, in flat boots or thick-soled men’s lace-up shoes, their outfits not a melting pot but a mosaic of clashing textures, prints, punkish metal embellishments, face-framing ruffles (definitely not flat), and leather skullcaps.
There’s been a lot of talk this week about bourgeois dress codes—we’ll soon be inundated with camel and culottes. But this was a different view of Paris, backward-looking, in some ways, to the 1980s, yes, but with less prescriptive results. LV clients with a sartorial streak might fancy the tomboyish tailoring. Craftier types will appreciate the quilted floral-print jacket and oversize vest, almost country-ish in their attitude, which qualified as the most surprising elements of the show. For the women who go to Louis Vuitton for its savoir faire with leather, it will be the Damier check pencil skirts. Eclecticism was the collection’s virtue—and its audacity. Sitting at a café in the fourth arrondissement, or anywhere, you’re going to watch these clothes walk by, not stare into your smartphone.
