Another One Proves His Salt: Gehry-quière for Vuitton

Nicolas Ghesquière showed his first spring collection for Louis Vuitton this morning at the soon-to-open Fondation Louis Vuitton, a contemporary art museum designed by Frank Gehry in Neuilly to look, as Vanity Fair put it, like “a crystal palace that is in the middle of an explosion.” Of course, what’s more impressive is precisely what lent Gehry his sparkling reputation: that the architectural marvel is new. It is, like Nicolas Ghesquière’s clothing for Vuitton, unlike anything you’ve seen before — even if it can feel familiar.

But that familiarity is actually just emotion driven home by artists who know what they like, because the thing about Ghesquière, and maybe this is true for Gehry too, is that he doesn’t just make stuff — he feels it. And he is so scrupulous about the way it is presented.

What started with a white victorian collar atop a mini dress that looked like it was lace even though it was knit slowly progressed to boast the spectacular though expected leather stitch work of Ghesquière. It was served on high waist, A-line mini skirts, a sleeveless jumper dress and a collarless jacket in burgundy and yellow, and burgundy and navy stripes. There was denim, too: selvedge in two high waist, cropped though not particularly skinny cases, velvet in several others and kitschy in another pair of pants. Meanwhile a dress and a skirt revealed painted lash curlers, cigarettes, nail polish and the new box bag by Vuitton on an ivory backdrop.

The truest acknowledgement of spring came in a group of airy, white mini dresses and one velvet bikini top shown with matching pants, but was taken back quickly by the heavily floral printed sequined tops — or were they dresses? — shown with delicately cut tights. All the models wore boots, and in a pair of black jeans replete with leather knee pads, Freja Beha closed the show.

I remember in February, after seeing Ghesquière’s first collection for the house and specifically the anterior Beha’s look (an ivory turtleneck, black jacket with camel wide lapels and A-line skirt) feeling so enthusiastic about the clothes. That didn’t exactly happen this season and I suspect this was deliberate. It was Ghesquière for Vuitton, what we’ve been conditioned to expect. To accept openly, but expect.

But don’t get me wrong, I was excited, just this time for a different reason. It wasn’t about the fashion, or the models, with their cool, clean hair and fresh earrings. It was impressive that over thirty days of shows and new clothes later, there was not even an iota of fatigue to be found in the room.

Like with a Gehry building, the context and environment of Ghesquière’s Vuitton might change, but you know when you’re looking at it. It’s proud, unapologetically itself and underscores an interesting point about The Wheel. Maybe none of us need to reinvent it so much as we do think about what it would mean to abandon it.

Images via Style.com