Fashion season has come to an end, and after all the lights, cameras and action, the human desire to return home is stronger than ever. Home can be inside the four walls where our belongings rest and where we spend our nights, but our original, our ever-present and true home is nature. When the body and the soul get tired of the artifice of this made-up world, there's always somewhere to return, somewhere that will always open its arms for us, despite us failing it over and over again. For the latest Louis Vuitton collection, Nicolas Ghesquière gives space for nature to do its job as the best designer and architect of textures and shapes that have existed — one that has created and preserved the original beauty that has inspired everything that came after.
The sunlight streaming through windows of the Cour Carrée in the Louvre Museum warms and welcomes the garments conceived by the French designer for the maison as one of the last shows of this busy and frankly joyful season. The rays fall over a set design that presents nature, mountains and water through the geometric and angular Ghesquière filter in sharp shapes and deep tones that feel vivid but also oneiric, a touch only Jeremy Hindle, production designer of the vivid but also oneiric Severance, could bring to life. This fusion of nature and artefact of the runway summarises accurately the looks that walk on top of it, where the sense of carrying our home, nature, with us is translated into pieces that resemble its creations and designs.
Being the most primitive and original inspiration humans ever had for the creation of everything that surrounds us, from where we live to what we eat and, of course, what we wear, it makes sense to incorporate elements like its textures, prints and colours into the clothes in ways that don't feel unfamiliar. We are used to seeing animal and floral prints, we are used to seeing fur and leather, and we are used to colour schemes that remind us of the forest, the desert, the sunset or the night sky. But Louis Vuitton's savoir-faire, artisanal excellence and expertise and Nicolas's ability to never cease in his effort of producing innovative, fun pieces enhance the elements we are used to seeing, resulting in an inventive, rich and intricate take on the beauty of the world we inhabit.
However, these usual and familiar elements inspired by nature that translate into something wearable are infiltrated with the human touch, far beyond the obvious fact that it is all human-made. The instinctive necessity of building a home within our home, commonly known as a house but with infinite proper names that transformed over time across cultures, tribes, and eras, has increased the richness of this concept of having somewhere to stay, to rest at the end of the day and to call ours. The collection, more specifically the complements such as hats and bags and the outerwear, was infused with a sense and a look of carrying your home with you. This nomadic idea of constant movement, of travel, of exploration that has always been the core of the brand is aligned with the appearance of transforming our shelters from places we go to pieces we can carry with us.
As constant as Nicolas has been at Louis Vuitton, with a tenure that can be called long and secure compared to what we are used to nowadays, it could be said he has found his home, but he hasn't allowed himself to be fully accommodated in it, not in a bad way, but in the best way. The comfort zone is one he’s not comfortable in; in his collections exists this sense of restlessness, of curiosity that allows the exploration of notions as primary as nature and the transformation of them into a complex exercise of reflection, of finding what hides beyond the apparent. Risks were taken in this collection, but the familiarity of seeing something as beautiful as nature reflected on it made its landing perfect. Ghesquière remains a nomad under the same roof, wandering and wondering, searching and finding.
