Ghesquière took as his subject this season the exhibition’s theme: that fashion is a mirror of the present moment. But not any old mirror. At Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton it’s a funhouse mirror in which eras and attitudes and flashbacks intersect. And voilà: we flashforward.

This season Ghesquière enlisted the costume designer Milena Canonero, a frequent collaborator of Stanley Kubrick’s, to create a monumental backdrop of 200 choral singers, each one clothed in historical garb dating from the 15th century to 1950. It was a mammoth undertaking, and quite beautiful. “I wanted a group of characters that represent different countries, different cultures, different times,” Ghesquière explained beforehand. “I love this interaction between the people seated in the audience, the girls walking, and the past looking at them—these three visions mixed together.” The time collapsing sensation was heightened by the fact that the song the chorus performed was a composition by Woodkid and Bryce Dessner based on the work of Nicolas de Grigny, a contemporary of Bach’s who never found fame.

 

 

Source: Nicole Phelps