Louis Vuitton SS23 – Paris Fashion Week

This season at Paris Fashion Week, Louis Vuitton once again graced the Musée du Louvre’s Cour Carrée in Paris for the new SS23 collection.  Since adding his signature design approach to the luxury house, creative director Nicolas Ghesquière has sought to modernise and contextualise the luxury aesthetic residing in the DNA of the brand – and the same will be true for next summer.

The appealingly large zips, flies, pockets and buckle detailing throughout the collection became innovative running motifs that reflected the magnification of the small things that make us all special.  Opening the show, actress HoYeon Jung set the tone stepping out into designer Philippe Parreno’s giant, blood-red, abstract flower of a set.  The black and white two-piece with exaggerated tubing and swinging pleats at the skirt hem telegraphed the exciting redefinition of silhouettes that was to come.

Ghesquière’s fondness for A-line shapes was not lost altogether, however.  Tent and halterneck dresses, swinging skirts and sumptuous leather shirt dresses – a fabric that counts as another favourite of Ghesquière’s – all folded in to the new captivating story.   Other underlying narratives came in the form of giant graphic prints of buckles and zips seen in the men’s shirts and suits.  These larger-than-life proportions weren’t just confined to the garments.   The cast all wore shin or knee-high boots with thick riot grrrl treads, and not even so much as a kitten heel in sight.  The modernism on display was as obvious as the venue it was being seen in.

The colour palette heavily favoured black, but was broken up with abstract psychedelic splashes in wool minidresses and ruffled trousers, and in a shock of ‘tiger’ orange seen in the finely ribbed coat.  But it was the inverse look at the details, and how they all came together to create new visual stimulations in a collection, that stood out for Louis Vuitton SS23.  Simple waistcoat dresses with almost improbably wide belts at the hem, giant bows and cameos of crystal-encrusted layered lace were perfect examples of the kind of sophisticated creative wit that should have most fashion aficionados pining for Ghesquière’s summer next year.

For more information on Louis Vuitton SS23, click here

Click here to read the Stella McCartney Paris Fashion Week review