Louis Vuitton Resort 2024 Cruise, Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore, Italy. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Louis Vuitton.
The story starts… “An island… Isola Bella, framed by Lake Maggiore, has harbored the legends of the Borromeo family for several centuries. The Louis Vuitton 2024 Cruise Collection docks at this palace on the water, where mysterious gardens bloom in infinite foliage. “
And it continues… “A botanical Cruise… The paradox is a joyful one, rousing dreamy stylistic interpretations. A Cruise that gives rise to contemporary tales, populated by drifting creatures that abandon aquatic dwellings for the discovery of terrestrial wonders. The Cruise 2024 collection is a narrative of transformation. Sartorial characters that renew themselves, each in contact with the other. Sumptuous details of Nicolas Ghesquiere are enriched by the idyllic charm of Isola Bella. Featuring audacious silhouettes, neoprene textures, and mythical accents, he translates his aquatic musings into a contemporary collection. This collection creates a dreamlike fantasy of lake-inspired silhouettes accented by modern details with a Baroque flair.“
Beautiful words… very fairytale-like…. That is how Louis Vuitton probably wanted to see this collection and link it to indeed magnanimous, the one of a kind, place in the world. But it’s not what we see. For unknown reason the collection looks like a student work, the mood is very depressing, the looks deranged, almost gothic.
We see the butlers and soldiers with badly made oversized leather jackets and trousers, huge matlased tops, dark servants in the princess castle, who look like killers with trash bags and a bunch of weird headpieces with plumes, and not related in any way to princess or castle or anything cheerful in that matter. At the end we actually see a princess with a stone-face in a nightgown, which probably should be… probably something else.
I hardly recognized the style of Nicolas Ghesquiere. I was looking for baroque flair, but I couldn’t find any, except a couple of ruffles put here and there on transparent long skirts and puffy sleeves for no reason. And I was asking myself: why Isola Bella? There are many places in the world, dark medieval castles where this collection may probably find its place. But this beautiful environment had such enormous resonance with what Louis Vuitton showed us today that my eyes were hurt.
Was it really worth it? This place is for Dolce Gabbana fairytales and not for ready-to-wear cheap potato-bag dresses with ruffles, and deformed military boots and sneakers.
Is that it? Louis Vuitton can afford it? Just because? Shouldn’t these places like Isola Bella be some sort of forbidden resort, hidden untouched beauty by this ugliness reserved for elegance, beauty and grace? Or at Louis Vuitton people forgot what princesses from fairy tales look like? Perhaps it is time for a reality check before announcing Louis Vuitton as a cultural institution. So much effort for this? How dull… Luxury completely lost its meaning in this Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 collection.
See All Looks Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024
