Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
It was an hour or so before a torrential downpour in New York, one that left streets flooded and subway stations bursting with water. The weather outside was ominous: wet, muggy, and sticky. But inside the Frick museum, where the Louis Vuitton cruise show was being held, the air was cold, crisp, and kept at an exact temperature: 70 degrees. The Frick mansion, built in 1913 and former home to Henry Frick (also home to some rare Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings) was always intended to be a museum but, for the first time in its history, it was hosting a fashion show.
Around the museum’s Garden Court sat a glistening fountain flanked by Ionic columns and a mix of palms and tropical plants. Here, men with chiseled jaws extended silver platters toward passing guests. In the West Gallery, where paintings from the mid-1500s hang and lush, green carpet crinkled beneath feet, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, and Emma Stone took their seats among a smattering of camera flashes. Grace Coddington and Law Roach, each with their signature hairstyles on display, sat front row among the stars. Someone near me spotted a showgoer in Louis Vuitton silk pajamas and said, “I wish I would’ve worn those.”
According to the show notes, this cruise collection was all about taking opposites and finding the connection. Creative director Nicolas Ghesquière drew inspiration from Paris and New York, a tale of two cities, attempting to highlight their distinct identities while also bridging their distance. The Frick served as the entryway to Paris and classical French art. On the other end of the spectrum, Ghesquière sees New York as a “pop-culture experience,” a place of aspiration that serves as a catalyst for pop culture, pop art, and “pop luxury.” It was while searching the archives that Ghesquière found the connecting thread between classical France and contemporary New York: a vintage, 1930s L.V. leather suitcase painted by the late New York–based artist Keith Haring.
That thread was on full display in the clothes that came down the runway. A selection of Haring’s work was featured across several garments: a boxy blouse with the word “New York” and the artist’s iconic dancing figures in front of an apple across the front, polka-dot men prancing across a blazer, and a pair of dogs encountering a UFO on a cropped top. The rest of the collection fell in line with that sense of play with frilled ponchos bouncing down the corridors of the museum, boxing shorts slung from waists and boxing gloves hanging off models’ shoulders, dresses and skirts in neon oranges and purples, and fun hats galore. Models wore fez-esque caps and Alana Haim strutted down the runway (her sisters watching front row) in a floppy fedora pulled halfway over her face.
After the show concluded, guests tumbled down the stone steps and out of the mansion onto 70th street with umbrellas on standby for the storm that rolled in during the runway. People snaked their way through black cars lining the curb on their way to Maxime’s, just around the corner on Madison Avenue, for the after-party. Inside the old converted Upper East Side manor, chefs tossed fresh spicy-tuna hand rolls into the palms of awaiting patrons and guests sipped martinis and wine, snacking on caviar served on silver platters. The room was washed with dim, red light, filled with editors, influencers, and VICs, dressed in summer greens, pinks, and blues. It was as if the show notes, “color is vibrant, brilliant and positive,” had come to life.
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