Nicolas Ghesquière invited his longtime friend French artist Philippe Parreno to create an installation, with the help of Hollywood production designer James Chinlund, in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre Museum for his Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2023 fashion show. They created a set that felt a little as if a spaceship, “kind of a flower, a carnival flower”, whose massive proportions inspired the supersizing that happened on the runway.
Ghesquière highlighted the DNA of the Maison where the collection zoomed in on the codes of the house, such as padlocks, buckles, zippers, rivets, and more, paying homage to the French luxury house’s exquisite hardware details. He played with proportions and scales, confronting the infinitely large and the infinitely small to compose innovative and even surreal silhouettes.
Zips and buckles appeared as trompe-l’oeil prints on perforated leather suits, while giant silver buttons reflected the scene like a fish-eye lens.
All the metallic details usually used on clothes were enlarged, used as accessories in their own right, the folds of the bucket bags were used as mini dresses, the padlock covers of the bags appeared enlarged on the wrists of the mannequins. Adding to the sense of distortion were accessories, including a miniature this time, that of the Vuitton house in Asnière, the family’s birthplace and now home to a workshop, as in the old days, bags in the shape of luggage tags and oversized versions of the brand’s monogrammed canvas key ring pouch.
©Louis Vuitton
