It does not have to be loud. Nicolas Ghesquière’s 10th Anniversary show, Louis Vuitton’s tour de force

It’s amazing that Louis Vuitton can keep the womenswear and menswear poles apart. One is deeply inspiring and exhilarating, the other… well, what have we not already said. The womenswear truly makes their men’s look juvenile. There is, of course, no basis for comparison: one is put together by a designer, the other is not. And Nicolas Ghesquière showed why, after 10 years at LV, he is still truly their main man (he recently extended his contract by another five years, but if he should one day decide to bring his tenure to a close, and seek employment elsewhere, we hope he would not be described as “another white male designer”). The autumn/winter 2024 show was not only the best presentation of the Paris season, it was one that would send Andrew Bolton, seduced by its emotive pull and design heft, into a buying spree. The show notes revealed that Mr Ghesquière, describing the night to be “a meaningful evening”, had desired this to be a retrospective, but the clothes appeared to be composites of what his memory retained of the past, rather than passively referencing any archival resource. It was not nostalgic.

As with his debut collection for LV, Mr Ghesquière presented his latest in the Cour Carrée—the square courtyard in the Louvre—but this time the staging and the set seemed grander and even more futuristic. Designed by the Parisian artist Philippe Parreno and the American production designer James Chinlund (whose work includes 2022’s The Batman), the striking see-through construct—vaguely recalled IM Pei’s transparent Pyramid nearby, but flatter—could be an event hall (if there is such a thing) in the International Space Station. The white runway cut diagonally across the space, with a massive globular structure hanging in the middle—it could have been Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, now equipped with speakers to boom Mirwais’s Disco Science. It was, to us, the best set design of the season (even Balenciaga’s was less impressive, now that Chanel, too, used massive and expansive video screen, but with less awe-inspiring results) that connected symbiotically with the clothes. The mix matched.

Mr Ghesquière has always approached dressmaking differently from others. The 10th anniversary designs were no different. He did his own thing, pulling together disparate elements into a not-ungainly whole. He may be inspired by his own past with the maison, but he has his sights cast firmly forward. Nothing keenly retro nor touches of the mundane to pass off as ‘stealth wealth’. No obvious locational reference such as Deauville for him either. There is, however, one seeming homage. Mr Ghesquière is not quite inclined to salute the designers he admires. But this time, a quintet of beaded/sequinned/embroidered jackets were deliciously evocative of those of Yves Saint Laurent’s in the late ’80s. When things were less ornate, reflective coin-sized paillettes on sheer dresses that looked ready for any awards night after-party shone. The eveningwear, in fact, was not typical red carpet fare. The kooky asymmetry and the compositional deviation remained firmly a Ghesquière hand.

For a while, we always thought that Mr Ghesquière slipped into his womenswear pieces for men. They could, in fact, be unisex styles (such as those sporty looks).—we weren’t sure. Once, when we asked about certain pieces at the LV Island Store, we were told, rather firmly, by a staffer that Mr Ghesquière “does not do menswear”. Interestingly, we had frequently seen men buying from the women’s collection in the LV stores in Tokyo. As if to confirm our suspicion, for the current show, K-pop rapper Felix (aka Lee Yong-bok) of Stray Kids sashayed down the runway in an icy look of a mock-turtleneck top with squarish paillettes arranged like brickwork and pants with graphic panels, and hands encased in furry muffs. What was Mr Ghesquière suggesting? It is, hitherto, unclear why he could not oversee the LV menswear too (he did when he was at Balenciaga). When Nicolas Ghesquière took to the runway after the finale, he was received with an uproarious standing ovation. He certainly deserved it.

Screen shot (top) louisvuitton/YouTube. Photos: Louis Vuitton