Gucci\u2019s mega-show in Times Square<\/a> last Saturday, populated by cartoonish city characters of the most well-dressed kind, it was hard not to think that what was coming was some ready-to-wear psychographic costume party.<\/p>\nBut it turned out that something altogether weirder was going on.<\/p>\n
Imagine a smashup of the Belle \u00c9poque glamour of a private mansion turned museum, filled with soft-focus oils of society doyennes past, and Keith Haring graffiti art with its democratization of the exquisite, and you\u2019ll get the idea.<\/p>\n
Then throw in some references to yet more kitschy Americana \u2014 denim! cowskin! motorcycle gangs! \u2014 plus some boxing paraphernalia. (Why? No idea.) Add a bedazzled Chinese takeout food container and the result was even messier.<\/p>\n
Kind of like the city itself. Not like the clothes worn by people who live in the city \u2014 these clothes didn\u2019t look like clothes worn by any person I know \u2014 but the chaotic, constant remixing of cultures that feeds its imagination.<\/p>\n
After all, the old distinctions between life above 42nd Street and below, or 14th Street and below, went by the wayside a few decades ago. The borders between subcultures have become porous. They zig and zag all over the place, often in unpredictable ways, and so did the show.<\/p>\n
A lot of the stuff didn\u2019t actually make much sense. Overalls were rolled down to the waist, the bib either tied like a sweater or draped over the hips like a peplum. In a collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation, the artist\u2019s paintings were reproduced on quilted boxing boots, bags and blouses with squared-off 1980s shoulders that looked like frames for a canvas. A satin-lined fishing vest topped lilac metallic leather pants. Little cocktail dresses were covered in intricate embroidery composed of spaghetti-meets-Haring squiggles. There were a lot of hobo hats. And some sheer, skinny knits.<\/p>\n
And then there was the evening wear, which married elaborate Gainsborough ruffles with cropped knit unitards or sheer cargo pants in truly peculiar juxtapositions. Ghesqui\u00e8re has always liked remixing his decades and references in jarring compositions, but this time he may have reached a new extreme.<\/p>\n
The point isn\u2019t wearability. It is, by de- and re-contextualizing familiar variables, to make you see them in new ways. That includes the handbags, which are the brand\u2019s bread and butter. And it is also why Vuitton is so committed to aligning itself with museums \u2014 or at least, art-world thinking.<\/p>\n
In Paris, the house has a long-term relationship with the Louvre. Here, it is doing the same with the Frick. Vuitton has entered into a three-year partnership with the institution, which includes underwriting free public-access days known as Louis Vuitton First Fridays. It will also support the museum\u2019s next three big exhibitions as well as a curatorial position: the Louis Vuitton Curatorial Research Associate.<\/p>\n
After the show, Zendaya swapped out the gray minidress she wore to sit front row for a pair of gold satin boxer shorts and a black satin jacket that had just appeared on the runway, the better to model it for the after-party.<\/p>\n
The party was held around the corner at Maxime\u2019s, the private club that is an even more exclusive insider corner of the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is it with New York clich\u00e9s and European designers? On Wednesday, Louis Vuitton took over the Frick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12704],"tags":[22740,21513,13925,14269,22736,22738,22739,2773,4955,22741,22737,22340],"class_list":["post-31625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-louis-vuitton","tag-cruise-collections","tag-fashion-and-apparel","tag-fashion-shows","tag-frick-collection","tag-ghesquiere","tag-haring","tag-keith","tag-louis-vuitton","tag-lvmh","tag-manhattan-nyc","tag-nicolas","tag-your-feed-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}