Once upon a time, Paris had the big three: Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. Each season, these brands – under Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano (and later Raf Simons) and Marc Jacobs, retrospectively – dictated the tempo and rhythm of fashion. Actual dreams were made here. You wanted to be in one of these universes – or in all at the same time. Today, these three brands are even bigger, but they’ve turned into amorphous behemoths that lost the plot and zeitgeist (which doesn’t make the bags sales stumble, mind you).

Nicolas Ghesquière, once a true fashion innovator, joins the ranks of bad designers leading ridiculously big brands. His collections are puzzling not because of their conceptual effort, but because they look absolutely clumsy, dusty and hideous. Spring-summer 2025 feels like a pile of stuff that somebody tried really hard to style in a “contemporary” way. Lengthy togas, unflattering sacks, silly-looking pants with one leg shorter than the other one, bizarre cut-outs… sorry, I don’t get it. I think you must be a well-paid Louis Vuitton ambassador to actually “get it”.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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