March 11, 2026 |
Nicolas Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton took us to a futuristic mountain range for his AW26 show, full of striking silhouettes, inspired by traditional garments worn by mountain people from Peru, Nepal, the Mongolian steppe and beyond.
Severance production designer Jeremy Hindle created a futuristic mountain range of triangular moss-covered peaks for Ghesquière’s models to roam. “I wanted to highlight that nature is the greatest designer,” said the designer, backstage. “And folklore is an attempt to explain the forces of Nature and the elements.” Folk clothing also evolves from a mix of problem solving practicality deep rooted symbolism and traditional craft – all rich seams for Ghesquière to mine.
The high-altitude inspiration was matched by high-attitude silhouettes, with Ghesquière presenting some of the boldest shapes on the Paris catwalks.
The show opened with a series of capes with super-wide, high or rounded shouldered in felted and fuzzy textures. There were oversized conical shearling hats and complex patchwork dresses presenting a collision of fabrics and folksy detailing. One model carried a soft mini trunk bag on a stick as if it were an napsack, another toted a bag with a cow bell attached. “We wanted to work on architectural clothing that could express different cultures around the globe,” said Ghesquière. He sees the folk wardrobe as, “clothes that bring us together – an anthropology of fashion,” adding, “I thought that was very interesting for Louis Vuitton to take that journey.”
The call of the wild could be heard everywhere. Silky track-style trousers and tailored suits had fur bursting from the seams whilst fuzzy check mohair mini skirts and matching scoop hem crop-tops were decorated with naïve and strange animal paintings by Ukrainian artist Nazar Strelyaev-Nazarko.
Let others play safe with classics. For AW26, Ghesquière’s imagination roamed free and he ventured far beyond conventions. This was next level stuff.
Photography courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
