Towering over the verdant foliage of the Jardin D'Acclimatation in Paris, the brand new, Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton is monumental, seemingly buoyant - arching skywards in a tranquil sweep of bright, steel sails. It took 3,600 glass panels, according to the hollow, Dune-inspired welcome video, a figure akin to the myriad techniques that Nicolas Ghesquière finessed together in his third collection for Louis Vuitton, shown in that yet unfinished building in a temporary, dark mirrored labyrinth. The trim and pointy A-line silhouette that he spearheaded for fall (and softened considerably with Monaco's resort show) returned here, its driving force a jarring experiment in violent colour twists and a textural melee of primal and futuristic textiles from stripped eelskin to crushed velvet and overstitched denim. Ghesquière's purified Vuitton girl took on virginal airs for spring, his 'romantic jersey' dresses and blouses clashing with patchwork boots, as 'pointelle' knits were worn over flouncing wrap skirts that seemed ribbed, pleated, smocked and woven all at once. Later his fragile muses fell from grace, as they shrugged into the glossy separates in that striped eelskin, or zipped on his sticker-print white denim, with its unsettling taste of Memphis kitsch.
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
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