Louis Vuitton's nomadic brutalism

«Do I fear the future? Yes, everyone does, but I still want to be optimistic. It is good to be in this place, where they are building humanity's tomorrow». This is how Nicolas Ghesquière talked about his cruise for Louis Vuitton, which is back live at a special location, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, San Diego, California. A true California dreamin' as the brutalist structure, born in the mid-1960s from the vision of architect Louis Kahn, takes on the hues of an almost unreal sunset when the show begins, becoming a tale with cinematic traits that are always so dear to Louis Vuitton womenswear’s designer. A face that the Lvmh fashion house likes a lot, Lous and the Yakuza —stage name for Marie-Pierra Kakoma, singer-songwriter, rapper and model from the Democratic Republic of Congo and naturalized Belgian— opens the show with the first of those big dresses that look like a parade of oracles. Hers is a name that tells a collision, with the anagram of the word soul and Yakuza, the notorious Japanese criminal organization.

Because Nicolas Ghesquière's women are always extraordinarily strong, like model Lauren Wasser who walks with two golden prosthetics, giving the catwalk an unexpected energy. You can breathe desert, sand, the latest Dune and the timeless Mad Max, lower California’s cliffs, the futuristic atmospheres of a sci-fi movie with warrior heroines covering themselves to fight the climate that, with its changes, can become the enemy. Hoods, mirrored sunglasses, desert boots as well as sneakers with dangling chains and skateboards. Shield-looking tops, capes stiff as armor, shaman drapes, overlays and bling bling sequins with metallic surfaces like mirrors for Morgana effects, those mirages of the deserted lands. Where to show bodies pushing the limits, highlighted by exaggerated crop tops, bodies enhanced by steel-eyed bracelets. With shoulders that become impossible architectures in the finale to impress and bewitch a very cinematic parterre.

From the hostess Delphine Arnault to the super-photographed Anna Wintour, it is a Hollywood that could personify Ghesquière's new nomadism. From it-actress Ana De Armas to her 007 colleague Léa Seydoux and to Samara Weaving, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Renate Reinsve, Chloë Grace Moretz and Miranda Kerr. «The guest of honor? It is the sun. These outfits celebrate light».

Judgment. The drone flying and filming above the catwalk meets the seagulls that have always reigned here. However, the seagulls win, they are not going to be backed into a corner. Machines and nature, as on stage, with bodies becoming mutants, soft and angular, shiny and sandy at once. A powerful styling play on a collection that was already powerful from the start, very cruise-couture. (All rights reserved)