Fashion Week Fall 2021

Louis Vuitton

During Paris Fashion Week, Louis Vuitton designed by Nicholas Ghesquière presented the Fall 2021 Ready-to-Wear collection.  Ghesquière, who has the luxury of staging his catwalk in the Louvre each season, presented without a live audience for the first time.  The creative director said he decided to film a traditional catwalk format, instead of attempting a fashion movie, because “I wanted to do a pure fashion moment. We had everything except the audience. I miss you all.” 

The show took place in the Denon wing amongst Greco-Roman sculptures in front of the monumental staircase of The Winged Victory of Samothrace.  The collection integrates Fornasetti’s distinct visual universe, blending Louis Vuitton’s forward-looking creativity and craft of the Italian design atelier’s magical depiction of the past.

Inspired by “Mind Travel”, Ghesquière mentioned “There’s no need to venture far to create the impression of travelling.”  He chose the song “Around the World” which was remastered with a live audience by Daft Punk. Ghesquière designed stagewear for Daft Punk while at Balenciaga a decade ago. 

The collection in mainly neutral tones infused hints of colour featuring silhouettes of cloud-like puffer jackets with exaggerated shoulder pads and sleeves.  The knee-high brightly colored leather boots were worn with layered dresses, long tou-tous were worn over pants, cut-out sleeved sweaters on top of sculpture inspired prints and loose cape silhouettes were multi-layered.  The cocktail, bell silhouette dresses with gold and silver beaded details were worn with bright knee-high boots.

The iconic LV handbags incorporated Fornasetti images of antiquity for a time-travelling aesthetic and creative dialogue with the museum’s remarkable array of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman sculpture.  “With this collaboration, I wanted to use the pieces to evoke the continuing modernity of Fornasetti’s artistic world.” said Ghesquière.