Louis Vuitton's identity has long been interwoven with the spirit of travel, a legacy evident in their campaigns, collections, and iconic pieces. For the Fall/Winter 2025 show, Nicolas Ghesquière masterfully translated this heritage by shifting the venue from the Louvre to the Étoile du Nord train station.
This choice, while seemingly obvious, marked a significant moment where Ghesquière directly engaged with the brand's history, acknowledging the train's vital role in the evolution of travel and Louis Vuitton's own narrative. By choosing a preserved historical station, he moved beyond a simple thematic collection, focusing instead on the station as a nexus of human experience.
Ghesquière's vision centred on the station as a place of "encounters, separations, reunions, group travels," a crossroads where lives intersect and stories unfold. He drew inspiration from the cinematic and literary power of train platforms, referencing films like 2046, Snowpiercer, or even The Hunger Games, infusing the collection with a sense of narrative and character. This was evident in details like a model carrying a ukulele case in a feathered coat, evoking a cinematic persona.
The station, a place where countless anonymous journeys begin and end, became the stage for a collection that captured the emotional essence of these transitions. The collection itself served as a visual anthology of these journeys, showcasing a diverse array of characters and styles. Ghesquière's designs were less about a singular aesthetic and more about embodying the spirit of travel across eras.
The clothing ranged from classic leather sets and trench coats to dramatic silhouettes with ruffles and bold shoulders, a masterful blend of textures and patterns. Plaid dominated, while shimmering metallics and pinstripes added unexpected twists. Ghesquière effectively acted as a costume designer, crafting a collection that felt like a series of vignettes from imagined films, each piece contributing to the larger narrative of travel and human connection.
Accessories, as always, played a pivotal role, with reimagined trunks, scarves, and bags, including standout guitar-shaped handheld trunks and varied duffles, reinforcing Louis Vuitton's reputation as the ultimate travel outfitter. Significantly, this included beautiful reinterpretations of the brand's legendary bags, such as the refined Speedy and Keepall.
