So, a journey in fashion is a hackneyed concept – didn’t American Vogue editrix Anna Wintour once say (or, at least, write) that it was the word she wished everyone would stop using in the industry? But it makes sense at Louis Vuitton, given that they’re rooted in travel. And hence why Nicolas Ghesquière wrapped the interior of a vast megalith new Vuitton building on the Champs-Élysées in Sainsbury’s carrier-bag orange plastic tarps as stage to his Spring/Summer 2024 show. It was chicer than I make it sound, and more sensible: rather than an ode to Christo, the wrapping was intended to resemble the inside of a hot-air balloon, harking back to travel at the turn of the century when Vuitton was still young and its now world-dominating monogram had barely been invented.
The space Vuitton used for its show was beginning its own journey – it will eventually transform into a hybrid space, part store, part event space, part Peter Marino-designed hotel (as of right now). Which is, actually, to go right back to where it started – the space was originally the Elysée Palace Hotel, where tout Paris stayed for a brief two decades. And the notion of checking into a hotel, the ceaseless rendezvous within its corridors and sense of constant transformation of identity were part of the inspiration for this Vuitton show. It played out as a collection of characters parading through the space, each outfit an island, so to speak, an expression of individuality.
The opening looks were flowing skirts below blouson jackets, contrasting with firm, structured shapes later and tailored trouser suits hung with jewels. Those outfits seemed to slipstream between locales and eras, not only between one another but within themselves, as if still moving and transforming. A pair of corseted tops had shapes of the French Second Empire, but were worn with high-waisted pegged trousers that seemed fit for Le Palace in 1981; the jewel-slung tailored trousers suits were part club kind, part Maharajah stereotype; 40s-style military jackets, sentineled with brass buttons, were blown up over the briefest of skirts. The criss-crossing of identities happened not only from person to person, but within single outfits too.
Fittingly, accessories anchored the looks – nodding to the locale, there was even a bag in the shape of the Arc de Triomphe, visible for the venue. Presumably, the hope is that this new Vuitton megastore will prove a must-see monument in and of itself.
