Stepping Into The Retro-future
Review of Louis Vuitton Spring 2024 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
Unwrapping Nicolas Ghesquière’s summer 2024 show for Louis Vuitton took merely an understanding that the women who wear his version of the luxury house have a very innate sense of their own personal style and dressing for nobody but themselves they have paired peplum scarf tops with bermuda shorts and collarless jackets with baloon pants in the past. She is neither simplistic, nor to be held back in her quest to conquer the conundrum of how to dare to be different when all around demand conformity and normality.
The spirit of travel is never far from a creatives mind when it comes to the summer season. Collections often channel recent trips by designers seeking solace and the impossible – untapped inspiration. A local crafted textile that becomes the foundation of a new woven fabric technique, or some headspace to bring forth new ideas that will evolve their brand. Today travel was harnessed widely, starting with the extravagant gesture of the shows set design. Working with Production Designer James Chinlund who is known for his ‘large-scale installation art works’ the innovative set – based within the construction site of the new Louis Vuitton Champs Elysées store – transported guests by imagining themselves inside a hot air balloon, influenced by the Louis Vuitton spirit of travel. Light-infused draped fabric in orange evoked a true summer spirit. The expansive exercise was in perfect alignment for the play on volume and proportion set forth for summer 2024.
As a Louis Vuitton girl you walk a well-trodden path of confident style to rule in your world, and for next season that looks still to retro-laced silhouettes with a light touch. Trading places with the cool-girl French style presented for fall 2023, the creative director took his penchant for 1980s style silhouettes to (new) romantic heights. Where strict lines are replaced with a vintage sentiment, which was another page in the book of French-girl dressing 101. The broad use of stripes – so synonymous with the country’s sartorial history –updated the simple button-down and bias-cut skirt in candy colours, while a variegated pattern in monochrome and baby blue set off liquid-like blouses and gathered neckline slip dresses.
THE BUZZWORDS
Travelling light. Pattern layering. Soft romance.
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look # 6
At once a perfect embodiment of retro and future, the volume blouse and full soft skirt in pastel stripes will connect the Louis Vuitton brand to customers on a familiar, yet renewed level.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
In adopting the softer side to French style codes, a confident companion to the forward-facing Louis Vuitton woman is born, but one that is more retro-future and accessible in its rounded shoulders, gauzy layers, full-on volume and tapering – from waist to hem. The designers “audacious ode to French elegance” through opening up and exploring softer silhouettes will certainly broaden this collections appeal beyond the “cool girl” and act as a point-of-entry for those consumers who remember this narrative the first time around.
