Louis Vuitton. Fall 2025 - Paris Fashion Week.

With the corporatism desires, capitalism's evil twin, of a current U.S. President in overdrive, and certain European leaders slowly warming to the idea that private entities and the State can work, once tried in the 1800s and 1930s (Italy), hand-in-hand for the greater good of an incorporated society.  The owner of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), one of Europe's competing Billionaires, Bernard Arnault, called President Trump days after his inauguration, in lieu of Trump's plans to Tariff every country he can think of (a very Fascist economic policy), including France, to bring back all industries to America.  And LVMH, due to the fact Arnault is a friend of the Trump familia, may indeed cut a Tariff reprieve on conditions that Louis Vuitton move some, or all, of their manufacturing base to America, to be under Trump's economic megalomania. 

I have been reviewing  Nicolas Ghesquière's Louis Vuitton shows for over 7 years, and undoubtedly the Belgium designer who has been with Louis Vuitton for 10 years, has an infatuation with the 1950s proto-futurist aesthetical template of a future that never was, and Ghesquière has certainly mastered his craft, in developing his sleek, modernist styles that have graced the runways of Paris, Seoul and Shanghai over his decade long tenure.  Ghesquière has held his extravagant runway shows at a plethora of humanist monuments, from the famous "TWA Flight Center" at JFK Airport, New York, the late Louis Kahn's brutalist masterpiece the"Salk Institute" in San Diego,  the"Fondation Maeght" museum in Saint-Paul de Vence and the impressive "Jamsu Bridge", which is stands over the Han River in Seoul, South Korea.

Modernist grandeur and Ghesquière's impression for Louis Vuitton are very much his imprint for LVMH, yet of late, with his more recent runway shows, there has been, dare I say, a avant-garde fusion creeping in, overlaying Ghesquière's former modernist sleekness.  And as the originator of those retro 1950s futuristic Louis Vuitton styles, Ghesquière maybe slowly morphing away from the look.  

And for his Fall 2025 collection, he held the event within the halls of the "L’Étoile du Nord", a disused 19th Century train station, in homage to the famous "Étoile du Nord" train, which linked France to Belgium with all its European romanticism.  And trains, throughout the 1900s offered the Italian Futurists, prelude to Fascism, the thrill of speed, and unchecked human progress as it cuts through forests, mountains and nations, so it seems fitting that Ghesquière holds a similar sentiment of 1950s esque progress.  Also note, the 2013 science fiction film Snowpiercer was an inspiration for the collection.  Of course, I am not calling dear Ghesquière a proto-Fascist, even though his boss does like Trump, be it that his latest collection, as mentioned, offers a defined avant-garde slant on some of the more rigid Louis Vuitton style's of the last 10 years.  Is there a subtle backlash forming from Ghesquière?

With an eclectic array of the mix and match, 'thrift look' trend which ended suddenly pre-COVID 19 in 2019, noting Ghesquière's layering and ad hoc stylisations, it is by far his most experimental collection to date.   Incorporating a patchwork of fine wools, polyamide, lace and tartan patterns, the Fall 2025 styles is all about handbags and that Louis Vuitton motif, which has been clevely demoted throughout the latest collection, allowing Ghesquière to recraft his branding of Louis Vuitton, almost like a reset.    

Ghesquière once again, has proven how skilled he is as a designer, with his innovative attempt at restructuring his own trademark styles, whilst tweaking the Louis Vuitton template.  He revealed a stunning collection.

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(A.Glass 2025)