Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024: 5 things to know about the fairy-tale fashion show at Isola Bella, between postmodern mermaids and underwater time travelers.
Nicolas Ghesquière presented an enchanting Louis Vuitton Cruise collection at Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore that combined the ethereal (and aquatic) with motifs from the past. Below, Anders Christian Madsen reveals the five key points of the fashion show.
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On the enchanted island
When Nicolas Ghesquière creates scuba clothes, Mother Nature responds. On the evening of the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 fashion show, it was raining so hard on the Borromean Islands that the designer had to make the difficult (but wise) decision to move the presentation indoors. The show was to take place at sunset, in the hanging gardens of Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore, against the backdrop of a 17th-century palace. The images you see here were taken in the afternoon, under a warm late spring sun. Guests, including Oprah Winfrey, Cate Blanchett and Emma Stone, had to “settle” for watching the défilé in the wonderfully frescoed halls of the Palazzo Borromeo. This, however, did not detract from the experience, nor from a water-centric collection that appeared more fantastical-and more fairy-tale-like-than Ghesquière’s typical time travels.
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A botanical cruise
“It’s surprising, but Louis Vuitton has never shown in Italy,” Ghesquière said. “I wanted a special place, something new. Also a different architecture, a different context. The paradox of a botanical cruise really intrigued me.” Hailing from near and far, guests stayed at fabulous Lake Como hotels and, the day before the show, dined at the Rocca di Angera, a 13th-century castle on the shores of Lake Maggiore, now owned by the Borromeo family, which also owns nearby Isola Bella. On the day of the défilé, they relaxed by sailing on Lake Como and having lunch in picturesque Torno, before landing at the “floating gardens” of Isola Bella. “I had heard about it as something incredible,” Ghesquière continued. “The island in itself is worth a trip: a lake, a palace, gardens…. It is a fabulous destination, with caves covered in mosaics, statues, unicorns-the emblem of the Borromeo family-terraces, frescoed salons….”
Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 | Alessandro Luciano | Gorunway.com
Postmodern sirens
The lakes of northern Italy are-and historically have been-a place of leisure and beauty. Nothing demonstrates this better than the out-of-this-world, almost sci-fi creation that is Isola Bella, which was created solely to satisfy its owners’ desire for beauty: a fantasy come to life. For Ghesquière, it represented the push toward a different approach. Indeed, the designer seems to have been completely overwhelmed by the fairy tale woman that the island inspired in him: “It calls up dreamlike reflections,” he said. “I see this collection as a nostalgia-free tale. A story of anticipation. A kind of archaeology of the future. The mystery of lakes imagined to be populated by fantastic creatures, like a postmodern mermaid living in rivers, ponds and lakes. A mythological woman of legendary beauty.”
Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 | Alessandro Luciano | Gorunway.com
A dance party populated by transtemporal scuba divers
Like the visionary members of the Borromeo family who dreamed up the floating paradise of Isola Bella, Ghesquière brought his fantasy to life through a collection that combined modern, mythical aquatic motifs – scuba divers and mermaids, if you will – with botanical themes, while drawing on the fabulously costumed parties the island has hosted over the centuries. Dresses, suits and jumpsuits hybridized the materials of scuba wetsuits and the couture fabrics of the formal wardrobe, all declined in silhouettes that referenced the past five centuries while transcending them: crop tops and flouncy miniskirts cut like armor; tops with Renaissance sleeves and ruffled collars; wide regal robes worn over robotic swimsuits; and, again, sculptural tops and skirts that looked as if they were about to morph into enormous flowers.
Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 | Alessandro Luciano | Gorunway.com
The evening gowns looked like something out of a fairy tale
Anyone who has seen the trailer for the live-action version of The Little Mermaid (which, coincidentally, premiered on the very night of the Louis Vuitton Cruise show) and heard Ariel’s poignant “ah-ah-ah’s” will have felt taken back to childhood fairy tales. The finale of Ghesquière’s fashion show touched the same emotional buttons: an array of evening gowns that seemed to blossom like sea anemones, sway like seaweed, froth like waves, rendered in the same beautiful pastel colors as the shells in which Disney mermaids sleep. Paired with crown-like headdresses that Ghesquière likened to faun horns-they were created by a Roman atelier that makes costumes for film and opera-they enriched the fashion show with an infectious sense of boyish wonder, which no torrential rain could extinguish.