The allure of travelling in style helped make Louis Vuitton the biggest luxury house in the world, and no expense was spared for a trip to New York to showcase Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest collection.
The first model stepped on to the catwalk carrying a 100-year-old Louis Vuitton suitcase on which the artist Keith Haring had doodled several of his signature grooving stick figures in 1984. Prised from the Vuitton archives, the case heralded a collaboration with Haring’s estate that will include the classic LV Speedy handbag reissued with the artist’s dancing babies and barking dogs.
The show was held in the lavish marble galleries of Manhattan’s Frick Collection, home to masterpieces by Ingres, Rembrandt and Vermeer – an honour recompensed with a three-year sponsorship, with Louis Vuitton pledging to fund exhibitions, public access and a curatorial position at the gallery. From next year, the museum’s monthly free entry evenings will be rebranded as Louis Vuitton Free Fridays.
Louis Vuitton wanted to make noise with this show. Over the past year, fashion conversation has been dominated by the upheaval and rivalry at Chanel, Dior and Gucci – all of which have new designers. Ghesquière, by contrast, has been at Louis Vuitton for 13 years.
Zendaya, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Oprah Winfrey in the front row were reminders that Louis Vuitton still outsells its competitors, while the Haring motifs – and the musician Alana Haim taking a turn as a catwalk model – underscored Ghesquière’s continued ability to surprise. Ghesquière said he was not only inspired by Haring’s art, but by his “wonderful values, as a pioneer or unity and of liberation for so many people”.
The designer had fun with the contrast between the Frick’s Upper East Side swank and Haring, who made his name with illegal chalk sketches in New York’s subway stations. Louis Vuitton, founded as a maker of luxury trunks for first-class passengers, now commands more than £2,000 for a handbag.
However, its power lies in the universal recognition that sets it apart from other elite brands and secures its place in pop culture. “The starting point for this collection was the New York friction between uptown and downtown,” Ghesquière said. “I wanted to celebrate that duality.”
The show was a celebration of New York as a pop-cultural experience, with handbags shaped like takeaway boxes, records and soft-drink cans. Downtown was represented through fabulous jeans – denim being the ultimate American casual wear – while the richly pleated silks and statement chokers recalled the New York elite who once lived and partied in the Frick when it was a private house.
“What is special about this place is that you can feel the ghosts,” Ghesquière said. “Not just the art, but the furniture, the objects, the lifestyle.”
Rose Coffey, a senior foresight analyst at Future Laboratory, notes that the city’s culture and the Louis Vuitton business model share a broad demographic appeal. “New York is a city where street culture and super-high luxury coexist, which reflects Vuitton’s brand positioning,” she said. “They have a strong American consumer base ranging from the VICs [very important clients] to younger, aspirational consumers.”
The cross-pollination of fashion and art – a lucrative fixture on museum calendars, with exhibitions such as the V&A’s current Schiaparelli show – was pioneered by Louis Vuitton in 2001, when the designer Marc Jacobs collaborated with Stephen Sprouse on graffiti-style monogram bags that became collectors’ items. Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama later added their signature motifs – cherries and dots respectively – to Louis Vuitton handbags.
