Louis Vuitton. Spring/Summer 2026 - Paris Fashion Week

Nicolas Ghesquière's Spring/Summer 2026 collection feels more like a liteon Resort showing, rather a complete set of seasonal styles, albeit more tailored and crafted than a precursor for next year's looks.  And for Ghesquière's latest offering for Louis Vuitton, he showcased it at the "Clock Pavilion", better known as the Pavillon de l'Horloge, part of the 'Louvre Palace'.  Staying committed to reworking past time homages, or at least maintaining his 1950s esque futurism imprint of the future we never had, by adding the past which did exist, that being the 17th Century romanticism, which was an era of French colonialism and oppression.  

And if history does have a tendency to repeat itself, even if timelines are jumbled up, there is no doubting Ghesquière's interest in mid-century retro-futurism as a template for his fashion designs, that being his orderly, modernist impression, rather than the chaotic avant-garde of the later counterculture years.  Yet, it has been a tug-of-war of function over expression for Ghesquière, with 50s retro-futurism winning out. To which I have always found to be fascinating when reviewing Ghesquière's version of Louis Vuitton, while keeping in mind that Bernard Arnault, the third richest man in the world, who owns the Louis Vuitton brand name, is also a close friend of Donald Trump (did you know he's a Fascist?) and techno-Fascist Elon Musk, who once said, "The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy."  Has Ghesquière unconsciously or consciously representing the aesthetics of Far Right utopian 'hope', on the runway?  

Can we join the dots?  Why not?  As the attendees sat in Art Deco seats by designer Michel Dufet, at awe with the interior of Queen Anne d’Autriche apartment within the Pavillon de l'Horloge , which was probably crafted by her raising taxes on the peasants of the 17th Century France, stating that opulence and power is very enticing even for the oppressed.  However, Ghesquière's latest array feel's simplified and flat under the visual weight of the over 300 years of history.  Almost smothered by its attempt to fuse the 17th Century reflection to, as mentioned, Ghesquière's mid-century retro-futurism stylizations.

Not a very memorable collection from Ghesquière.

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(A.Glass 2025)