When Louis Vuitton chooses to disguise the renovations of its 5th Avenue store in New York with a façade made to look like six of their trunks piled on top of each other, they couldn’t have anticipated it would become such tourist bait. But, two years on, the installation has become a prime selfie spot. Despite a sudden heatwave hitting the city, fans jostled on the corner of 57th Street to get the killer shot. It was fitting then that a few blocks uptown, Louis Vuitton’s Creative Director Nicolas Ghesquière was preparing his latest Cruise show – acutely aware that he is at the helm of the world’s largest luxury brand. ‘You have to forget it’s that big, it’s too intimidating. Because every small decision you make at Louis Vuitton has a massive impact economically, creatively, in every aspect,’ Ghesquière told CBS before the show.
That may explain why Louis Vuitton is the third luxury brand to choose to show its cruise show in the USA this May, one of the few markets where the economy remains buoyant. Dior went to Hollywood (see overleaf), Gucci spent a reported $10 million to shut down New York’s Times Square and then it was Louis Vuitton’s turn to flex its muscle: the first fashion house to stage a catwalk show at the newly reopened Frick art gallery.
Once a private house built in the Gilded Age by steel magnate Henry Clay, it’s now a museum where those same tourists flock, eager to see some of the world’s most famous Old Masters’ paintings. Last night, though it was a different crowd. Anne Hathaway, seated next to Anna Wintour on the front row, with Emily Blunt a few seats down, delivered a meta Devil Wears Prada moment. Este and Danielle Haim waited patiently to see their sister Alana make her catwalk debut. And everyone waited for Zendaya – predictably, the last to sweep in wearing a draped silver mini-dress with a 1920s hair flick. Quite what Vermeer’s Girl Interrupted At Her Music hanging on the silk wall nearby would have made of the scene is anyone’s guess.
Her head would certainly have been turned when the thumping beats of Peaches’s electronica track Boys Wanna Be Her started and the first model emerged. Dressed in a denim jumpsuit, the top tied around her waist, it was the 1930s Louis Vuitton trunk she carried that set the tone of the show. Graffiti artist Keith Haring bought the trunk in 1984 and promptly took a Sharpie to it, tagging it with his distinctive markers: a crawling baby and a dancing figure. Now back in the Louis Vuitton archives, it was Ghesquière’s starting point for a show that captured the rebellious spirit of New York’s streets – and launched a collaboration with the late Haring’s estate that has cult status written all over it. Quite literally. Battered batwing leather jackets, high-top trainers, t-shirts and Speedy bags came scrawled with Haring’s artwork. One New York Big Apple slogan T-shirt had influencers on the front row lift their phones to capture in synchrony.
Ghesquière said backstage that he wanted to represent both sides of New York: Haring’s Downtown crew along with the Upper East Siders whose apartments surround The Frick. ‘I think it’s a question that will never be answered: this duality,’ he said. ‘I love that and it was a very interesting starting point for the collection.’ But while there were both circular bags shaped like records and ones fashioned to match the colonnades around the museum’s courtyard, make no mistake: this was Pop Artist meets Park Avenue Princess. Skirt suits came in punchy oranges and cobalt blues. Tweed jackets were paired with shocking neon sunglasses – a surprisingly easy styling tip to take away from the show straight away.
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One person who took that quite literally was Zendaya. She scuttled backstage to congratulate Ghesquière afterwards, emerging shortly after wearing one of the looks that had just been seen on the runway: yellow silk boxer shorts and a cropped leather jacket. Well, when you have an after-party to get to, why wait?
This story first appeared on GRAZIA UK.
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