Old-Fashioned. Louis Vuitton AW25

March 13, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Nicholas Ghesquière has been experimenting with the codes of the 1980s for the last few seasons. In his Louis Vuitton case, nostalgia is lethal (especially to ready-to-wear). Once, this designer captured the zeitgeist like no else. Today, he’s stuck in a bizarre, sentimental limbo. His runway ideas are scattered and dispersed, often left unresolved. The dresses look cumbersome and unflattering. The accessories – old-fashioned. Unlike at Saint Laurent, the colors (and prints) are just eye-scratching. I truly doubt anyone wants to dress like this. And we’re talking about Louis Vuitton, for god’s sake!

What strikes me is if an emerging designer – or a female designer – ever presented a collection like this, they would be roasted by everyone, from the critics to the leading voices of social media. Well, I guess the LV invitation has its power – and is worth staying silent for.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Puzzling. Louis Vuitton SS25

October 7, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

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”.