May 9, 2019 |
This cruising season is all about long-haul flights. Morocco to New York, then off Paris and now all the way back to NYC. Designers haven’t really curated an easy travelling schedule this season, but the stellar collections and the experience that come with them definitely make it worth it. Celebrating that terminal life, Nicolas Ghesquière set his Louis Vuitton Cruise 2020 show at the Trans World Flight Center, the Eero Saarinen-designed neo-futurist Terminal 5 of the John F. Kennedy airport. But instead of your regular travelling chic of cashmere trackies and UGG boots, the LV voyager takes a slightly more sophisticated and decadent approach to dressing.
With the sound of the automatised information board in the background and the fantastical architecture embellished with tropical greenery as the set, Ghesquière sent down a collection that was a natural continuation of his AW19 show in Paris, or at least set in the same decade. 1980s Bananarama drama. But while the Paris show was decidedly inspired by the European take on the era, the Cruise 2020 show was more of a cross-Atlantic conversation. A dialogue between New York and Paris, both the Uptown and Downtown (or the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche), the clothes presented were Ghesquière at his best.
The electric energy of the New Wave came through in the bold lines and statement tailoring; the shiny, butter-soft leather coming at your eyes in the most unexpected contrasting hues. Ruffles and ruching popped out when they was least expected, while the couture-like embroidery took it all to the next level, giving depth to already voluminous silhouettes. It was a story of a nightlife traveller, perhaps a girl that arrives to the airport straight after her night out. Her pompadour hair and high contrast, 1980s power bitch makeup intact and ready to go. She doesn’t care, do you?
