May 19, 2014 |
Louis Vuitton: Monaco- Guest post by Alex Fury
“Cruise” as a term often causes issues. It makes designers think far too literally of the matelot stripes Gaultier did better, of jaunty sailor hats and fishy realness, of the “Hope Floats” boats the Queens crafted on RuPaul’s Drag Race season four.
Oddly, Nicolas Ghesquiere looked to just those kind of cliches for his first Cruise show for Louis Vuitton – incidentally, the first fully-fledged pre-season show staged by either him or the house. If three’s a trend, the shows staged over the past fortnight by the power triangle of Vuitton, Chanel and Dior assert that Cruise is big business. Underlining the point, Vuitton flew press and celebrities to the principality of Monaco, and got Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene to show up too. They’re taking this pre collection stuff very, very seriously.
Then, on with the show. Ghesquiere’s big idea for Cruise was cruise. Or at least, the sea – the underwater imagery by video artist Ange Leccia adorning postcards on every seat mirrored by a breathing catwalk of water flowing over undersea pebbles. The first lace sweater was puckered with embroidered LV logos on raised discs, like octopus suckers. The second exist, another sweater, resembled seaweed stuff. See where this is going? Roughly Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, with scuba, snorkel and surfing gear providing detailing like chunked-out zips and suctioned-in, wetsuit-tight silhouettes. There were more abstract insinuations, like the wavelike ripple of a gathered crepe skirt around the upper thighs, or the portholes sliced onto skin.
How to factor in the threesome of strict sixties trouser-suits in psychedelic prints? Or the heavily embroidered skirts and dresses – one in sequins, layered over lace, layered over a patent dress with kick-ruffle at the knee? Do they really need justification? I mean, they looked great, women will want to buy them in their droves, everyone will want to shoot them. Job’s done.
That’s what this really was. A job done well – a collection that sated an urge for creativity as well as commerce. A cruise collection that didn’t coast along. A blast of fresh air. It was something refreshing and new. In short, it was genius. Just like Mr Ghesquiere is. And unlike so many fashion hacks, I don’t use that word lightly.
By Alex Fury
