Louis Vuitton announced that its Cruise 2024 Collection will be presented at a show on the 24th of May on Isola Bella of the Isole Borromee, located on Lake Maggiore, Italy.
The spirit of travel and the discovery of extraordinary natural environments, architectural masterpieces and art are intrinsically connected to Louis Vuitton. In keeping with the Maison’s tradition, the Cruise show will be held on the Isola Bella, a treasure chest of Baroque art suspended over the water.
One of the most renowned examples of Italian Baroque style, the Isola Bella, its Palazzo Borromeo, and its gardens, rise like a vessel on the water of Lake Maggiore. Geometries, shapes, and lines showcase an unparallel dialogue with the lake and its reflecting waters.
Louis Vuitton will be the first to stage a fashion show on Isola Bella which has been in the hands of the Borromeo family for around 400 years.
It took almost four hundred years and the teamwork of hundreds of qualified architects, engineers, plasterers, painters, and cabinetmakers, who in succession over the centuries have given rise to the extraordinary transformation of Isola Bella from a rock lapped by the waters of the lake into a place of delights.
Until 1630 Isola Bella was a rock inhabited by fishermen, with two small churches and a few vegetable gardens. The Borromeos, who had already been owners of Isola Madre since 1501, from the first two decades of the 17th century with Giulio Caesar III and Carlo III focused their interest on the island, launching the grandiose project that was to lead to the creation of the palazzo and the garden.
This aim was to be carried forward, extended, and defined by Vitaliano VI, who is to all intents and purposes considered the founder of Isola Bella. The work that resulted in the current layout continued without interruption throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, arriving in 1948, when, with Vitaliano IX Borromeo, the Salone Nuovo, the northern façade and the great pier were built. Isola Bella belongs to Terre Borromeo, the network identifying the cultural and natural sites associated with the Borromeo family.
Nowadays, Palazzo Borromeo with its gardens is open to the public for visits.
Previously, the Maison has held its Cruise shows at venues including John Lautner’s Bob & Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs; Oscar Niemeyer’s Contemporary Art Museum in Niterói; I.M. Pei’s Miho Museum near Kyoto, and the Salk Institute in California, among others.
The Cruise collection will be available in all Louis Vuitton stores worldwide in November 2023.
