Nicolas Ghesquière , the designer of the biggest luxury brand in the world, says that what he does is time travel, not fashion. Louis Vuitton is 170 years old but fashion only works when it is about the future, which makes time travel an essential part of the job description. Also, fancy travel is what Louis Vuitton luggage is all about, and time travel is the fanciest travel of all.
In a courtyard at the Louvre on Wednesday, there was a stage built out of Louis Vuitton trunks, slotted together like Lego blocks into a catwalk the size of a station platform. Last season marked Ghesquière’s 10th anniversary at the brand – he has talked about being married to Vuitton – and he told Vogue before the show he wanted this season to be “a renaissance”. This turned out to be more than a metaphor.
The models walked the catwalk of trunks in the dramatic power-dressing silhouettes of Renaissance court fashion. First on to the runway was a model in striped jacket with puffed sleeves, peplum waist and an upturned-triangle bodice. These were the shaping tricks used by Tudor kings and nobles, who projected majesty and power through the broad shoulders and gravity-defying puff of their doublets.
Ghesquière loves to dig up synergies in his travels through the ages, and here he made the point that cycling shorts, which look modern to our eye, are not dissimilar to breeches, which do not. In the spirit of the Renaissance, science has made some improvements, with supple technical f.
