One month, four cities, hundreds of shows. After all that, Nicolas Ghesquière of Louis Vuitton brought the curtain down on the fall season with a no-holds-barred 10th anniversary show — in front of 4,000 celebrities, guests and brand employees — that not only celebrated his decade at the house but the whole absurd, delightful enterprise known as fashion.
Imagine an enormous, bombastic set in the Louvre courtyard called the Cour Carrée, with a glowing orb created by the French artist Philippe Parreno at its center, sending out beams of light like an alien starship. Well, sometimes this industry and what it makes can seem like offerings from another planet: entirely removed from the substance of the everyday. But how else, really, to get imaginations sparking and capture the promise of alternate tomorrows?
Mr. Ghesquière did just that with a wild amalgamation of shapes and references that echoed collections he had made before without actually repeating them: techno traveler’s jackets dangling strands of pasta-shaped fringe from the sleeve; fragile fainting couch gowns covered in sparkling paillettes or glass beads and worn over ribbed workout-wear; crisp origami minidresses that looked like folded images of Louis Vuitton trunks; and on and on.
There were elaborately encrusted Louis XVI jackets paired with 1970s leather pants and skirts, cave man furs that were actually made of feathers and feathered evening looks that turned out to be silk.
Many looks were worn with big, furry mittens; some came with little knitted bat hats. It’ll be fizzing around in minds for months to come. Like the most powerful shows of the season — Willy Chavarria, Collina Strada and Thom Browne in New York; Marni, Diesel and Prada in Milan; Loewe, Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons and Balenciaga in Paris — it had the chaotic energy of its own conviction.
Louis Vuitton, fall 2024Credit…Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times; far right, François Durand/Getty Images
