Fashion designers are going all over the world to showcase their Cruise 2020 collections
With Louis Vuitton selecting the newly opened TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK Airport, Alessandro Michele of Gucci indulging his love of the ancient in Rome, and Virginie Viard channelling the late Karl Lagerfeld at the beginning of her new journey with Chanel at a French train station, designers have chosen some of the most inspiring and memorable locations to showcase their Cruise 2020 collections.
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Cruise shows have a well‑established trope: they are always held in jaw‑dropping examples of modernist architecture in various destinations across the world. Niemeyer’s Niterói Museum in Brazil? Tick. Lautner’s Bob Hope home in California? Tick.
When Louis Vuitton announced that its sixth Cruise show would be held in New York at the recently restored TWA Flight Centre, there was anticipation that the house would deliver an easy, 1960s-tinged affair. After all, why hold the show in architect Eero Saarinen’s gently arcing winged masterpiece of modernity if you aren’t going to riff on the optimistic naivety of the jet age?
But on the night, there wasn’t a funky orange jumpsuit in sight. Instead, the mood was far more serious, with looks and choreography that were in stark contrast to the groovy, curved walkways.
Celebrities, VIP clients and the LVMH top brass, including Bernard Arnault himself, looked on intently as the models began to emerge from multiple corridors. Some donned capes evoking Amelia Earhart (or even Ming the Merciless from vintage sci-fi Flash Gordon), while others were anime-like, with dramatic, exaggerated silhouettes and big boots. One was completely boyish in her dark suit and quiff. All were wearing clothes that were clearly expensive—embroidered, brocaded, bejewelled (to the point where one fashion editor quipped semi-jokingly that the collection might be too pricey to actually produce). As often is the case with creative director Nicolas Ghesquière’s models, they looked as if they had strutted into our world from the future.