January 2, 2025 |
The Louis Vuitton cruise 2025 in Barcelona was my third stop on a show schedule that was very much closer to home and mostly Europe-bound (only Balenciaga bucked the trend but they did bring us to Shanghai, where I indulged in juicy xiaolongbaos, so all is forgiven). Nicolas Ghesquière has notched up 10 years at the French mega maison and showing in Barcelona marks his 10th cruise collection outing for LV.
This is in addition to an impossible show venue list of architectural wonders all over the world, from Bob Hope’s John Lautner-designed house in Palm Springs and I.M. Pei’s Miho Museum in Kyoto to the Jetsons-esque TWA building in New York. Somehow, I’ve notched up a decade of travelling on these epic LV journeys (save for the show in Rio when I was pregnant and zika virus was raging), where I got to experience some literal dizzying heights. I sometimes have to look back at old iCloud albums to check that I did indeed get to hang out with geishas in Kyoto’s Gion district, play Dance Dance Revolution (my favourite arcade game) at an afterparty in the middle of the Palm Springs desert and witness the most perfect AI-generated sunset rising above the Pacific Ocean in San Diego.
from left: Larissa, Gwen and Libby wear LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025
Fast forward to 2024 and those days of extreme globetrotting feel a little out of sync. You could definitely sense that the houses themselves are keen to do things differently amid shaky economics and a slowdown in luxury spending. And personally speaking, I’ve also wanted to stay closer to home for my two young sprogs (one of whom was photographed for this very magazine’s last issue). For Louis Vuitton, Barcelona, a destination that for many Brits will feel like familiar and very close territory, seems like an obvious choice, given that it is the architectural hotspot in Europe. Doesn’t everyone have memories of trying to hit up every Gaudi building with thronging tourist crowds and indulging in overpriced tapas and bagged sangria on La Rambla?
But Ghesquière, being the consummate architectural aficionado that he is, wasn’t going to just take us to the obvious places. And even if he did, we were sure to be treated to a very different perspective on a city that we think we know well.
The advantage of a close-ish cruise location is that it felt relaxed from the offset. A quick flight from Heathrow to Barcelona and a zippy half-hour car ride later, I was speedily checked into the lovely Soho House overlooking Port Vell. As an avid follower of @SohoHouseMemes, I was Butterfly came on, you knew that excess really was back. She is unapologetic standards) for lunch with Declan Chan, a stylist and close friend, as we were surrounded by loud fintech bros and American influencer girls. Say what you want, but at the very least you know what you’re getting when you’re in a Soho House environ.
from left: Miranda wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025, Victoria wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025
I was ready for some form of unknown. Suitably attired in a Louis Vuitton cruise 24 giant pailette skirt and a mermaid print bolero (I’m always down to wear the truly madcap Ghesquière ’fits), we drove to the outskirts of Barcelona to be confronted by the concrete towers of Taller de Arquitectura, also known as La Fábrica, the former home and work environment of the architect Ricardo Bofill. This old cement factory is arresting from the get-go, with its soaringly tall proportions and amalgamation of architectural styles. David Martin, founder of ODDA magazine, told me it was practically impossible to do shoots or host events in and around this extraordinary space, proof therefore of LVMH’s ability to flex. We climbed narrow staircases and squeezed into minuscule three-person lifts to get to the bubble-windowed rooftop, where we really got to see the extent of this wondrous complex. It overlooked the equally impressive cubist apartment block named Walden 7 (also designed by Bofill), which I learned to my incredulity was designed as social housing. With every step, there were angles and vistas at sunset that had me bouncing around going “WOW” in my bubble paillette skirt. Even though I’ve bagged almost 20 years in the fashion world, I’m thankful that there are still always pinch- me, excitable moments. Dinner was back down on concrete earth with my blogging brethren Bryan Boy, Tamu McPherson, Irene Kim and Yoyo Cao. We go way back so we don’t have to stress about stunted conversations and pleasantries. We ate, drank and left early so we could head back to mask up for sleep and be ready for a full day.
from left: Samile wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025, Loli wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025
The safety in familiar numbers meant that a boat trip around the city’s coastline was going to be easy, breezy fun rather than a tortured, “Oh, I’m stuck on a boat having awkward convos with people I hardly know.” I wore a neoprene finned surf top but, with the weather getting chillier, there was no chance of jumping into the waters even if you can just about see Mallorca in the far distance. Sharing meals with your people also means there’s no need for polite etiquette. At the casual beachside restaurant Casa Costa, Beka Gvishiani of StyleNotCom was already hoarding the small plates, which ensured that the waiter was bringing everything quickly, and in abundance. Beka knows that hangry content creators are bound to make for a long and crabby night.
I had to fuel up as I was supposed to get to the show location ludicrously early to do a pre-show interview with Ghesquière. Wearing an LV new wave harlequin frilled mini dress from the SS24 collection and some dangerously pristine monogram white tights, I arrived at the gates of Park Güell and was dropped off at the celebrity ‘secret’ entrance by mistake. The K-pop fans who were there to catch a glimpse of Felix from Stray Kids had, of course, sleuthed out the location and were duly disappointed when I hopped out of the van. Getting there early and riding a golf buggy to the show prep area with fellow Brit journalists (shout out to Elle’s Kenya Hunt and Grazia’s Hattie Brett) meant we got to really take in the naturalist sprawl of this amazing public park designed by Gaudi at the turn of the 20th century. Ghesquière was effusive about the fact that he had always wanted to show in Barcelona, choosing the specific venue of the hypostyle room in the park. “It has a roof,” he joked, in reference to the torrential downpour in Lake Maggiore at last year’s LV cruise show. The fashion folkloric LVMH weather shaman was back at work, though; the skies were turning pink and purple as we took our seats beneath the doric columns and celestial mosaic ceilings.
Before the show, Ghesquière clued us in that he’d be viewing Spanish culture as a tourist and that it would be very dressed up. Cruise, after all, is his creative playground, “It’s joyful to keep it out of fashion and make people dream. Cruise makes everything feel possible – winter, summer… a free evocation of a personal travel,” he said. When Ghesquière is in cruise control, it really is something else. As the first bars of Gary Numan’s Music for Chameleons started up, you could see where he was going with his wide-brimmed cordoba hats and sleek, strong-shouldered tailoring that had a “Spanish rigour”, as he termed it. When Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly came on, you knew that excess really was back. She is unapologetic about the width of the brim of her hat, the ruffle on a top or the quantity of fringing. The collections also featured some of the best riding boots out there – over the knee, a slight point of the toe and pleasingly shiny. You could say it’s bang on the money considering hit shows like Disney+’s Jilly Cooper adaptation Rivals and its equestrian hunks and raunchy action in taffeta. Ghesquière also technically heralded the return of the polka dot, later entrenched and formalised by Alessandro Michele at Valentino. Quiet luxury, you say? A forbidden phrase in Ghesquière’s LV atelier, and quite rightly so!
from left: Kristin wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025, Qisi wears LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025
On a real show high, we were eager to elongate the night but were briefly penned inside the park because there were local residents protesting against the amount of tourism. Louis Vuitton’s CEO Pietro Beccari had earlier noted that it’s a nightly occurrence and one journalist said, “But we’re not tourists, we’re here to work!” Travelling cruise shows shouldn’t exist in a vacuum, of course, and I was later to learn that sadly there was excessive force in use by the police when dealing with the protesters. Guests of the show being ferried to the afterparty won’t have known that and were instead dealing with their own bunfight to get a car that could truly be described as First. World. Fashion. Problems. Must thank Spanish influencer Gala González for harrying the chauffeurs in her quickfire native tongue and getting us on our way. The adrenaline of the earlier show dramatics perhaps made the afterparty at Espai Xavier Corberó, which is filled with de Chirico and Escher-esque archways and staircases, a shorter affair for most of us. A quick whip around the buffet and a lil dance in the underground nightclub, where Bryan’s Sia-like short sharp wig was shown off to full effect (he had taken to wearing a different hairpiece to every cruise show), meant that our evening came to a close before midnight.
The next morning, our less-than-48-hour jaunt in Barcelona would end with a chill brunch at Little Beach House, where we were decked out with LV cushions and blankets down in the bay of Garraf. No boring avo toast. We came for the black seafood rice and the whole fish on the plancha grill. We left with our bellies full and eyes fed before Beka, David and I ranked the cruise shows we’d seen thus far. Our verdict? Louis Vuitton was winning hard. Sometimes you really don’t have to go too far to experience something out of this world.
Taken from 10+ Issue 7 – DECADENCE, MORE, PLEASURE – out NOW. Order your copy here.
LOUIS VUITTON CRUISE 2025: FASHION ARCHITECT
Photographer ROMAIN LAPRADE
Text SUSIE LAU
Date MAY 05, 2024
Location PARK GUELL, BARCELONA, SPAIN
Models VICTORIA FAWOLE at The MiLK Collective, KRISTIN DRAB at IMG Models, QISI FENG at Storm Management, MIRANDA MARTI at Linden Staub, GWEN WEIJERS at Platform Agency, LIBBY BENNETT at Boundary London, LOLI BAHIA at Women Management, LARISSA MORAES at IMG Models, SAMILE BERMANNELLI at Canvas Management
Designer NICOLAS GHESQUIERE
Hair DUFFY
Make-up PAT MCGRATH
Casting ASHLEY BROKAW
