Latest news with #Festivald'Avignon
Graziadaily
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
All Of These Mega A-Listers Just Went To This Incredible Louis Vuitton Show
It takes some confidence to shut down a 14th century fortress and now-certified UNESCO World Heritage site, as Louis Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière did last night for his Cruise 2026 show. But then again, when you've spent over a decade at the helm of the world's biggest luxury fashion house, you can afford to dream big. After all, that's quite an achievement in an industry currently witnessing so many designer shake-downs (the latest of which relating to Pierpaolo Piccioli and Balenciaga) it's beginning to resemble a very glamorous game of musical chairs – just with much, much higher stakes. For the comfortable-but-never-complacent Nicolas Ghesquière, then, annual Cruise shows are a chance to reinforce the brand's heritage and indulge his personal love of architectural wonder. Palais des Papes – the largest Gothic building of the Middle Ages and home to six papal conclaves throughout the 1300s – delivered both. A place of huge cultural significance in Provence, Ghesquière had visited it the summer of 2000 for Festival d'Avignon and seen a series of contemporary artists, including a performance by Bjork, take place in the palace's historic amphitheatre. The stage was set for a Louis Vuitton takeover, quite literally. 'Fashion, all the more so today, is theatrical too — a spectacle and performance aspect. To show in this setting truly means taking the stage,' Ghesquière told Grazia . Working with artist Es Devlin, Ghesquière flipped the traditional fashion show on his head by seating the guests on stage while leaving rows of red-chaired tiers around the stage empty – until the spectacular finale, that is, when the models took their places in the stalls looking down at the guests below. 'Who is watching whom? It brings yet another perspective to the scene,' said Ghesquière. It was a clever touch, particularly when the front row of a Louis Vuitton show brings almost as much excitement as the clothes. Ghesquière's gang of girls were all represented: Sophie Turner and Alicia Vikander at one end of an ornate wooden pew that made up the front row, Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan and filmmaker Ava DuVernay at the other. In between was long-term Ghesquière disciple Cate Blanchett, who dug around in her wardrobe to rewear one of her favourite looks: leather trousers and a draped blouse with embroidered trim. As the first model hit the smoke-filled runway in a patterned minidress that resembled a suit of armour, it was clear how much the location had influenced the collection. This was Medieval-Core. Sculptural caped-dresses that wouldn't have been out of place at a jousting match appeared to a soundtrack of horses hooves galloping; brocade dress-coats that looked like tapestries came trimmed with faux fur cuffs and collars; velvet jackets and party minis came in jewel colours, accessorised with ornate scarves that were whipped up by the wind. Open-toed gladiator boots came studded and covered in shards of glass; nods to chainmail were everywhere: most obviously embellishing knitwear, most beautifully in a series of maxi gowns that had the A-list lifting up their phones to photograph. 'Sometimes you need fairy tales and legends in your life,' Ghesquière had said backstage of wanting this collection to empower women. 'It is very much a reflection on the role clothing plays. Onstage, it takes on the full dimension of theatre, projecting an image and charisma, accentuating a style and character. It accompanies, supports and empowers.' Cate Blanchett at the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2026 show Whilst the Hollywood elite – who have shown how important Ghesquière's clothing is this month in Cannes – to command presence on red carpets will welcome this, the designer says there's a lesson for us all here. 'The theatricality of clothing is a fascinating subject, and stage presence offers an inexhaustible source of inspiration. It brings an added aura. But whether the clothing is for everyday or a spotlight, it conveys a measure of confidence, assurance or reassurance, a clue about one's personality.' Which is why, pick apart the theatrical pieces, and you also saw plenty of leather jackets, silver-flecked knitwear and jackets for the non-medieval Louis Vuitton woman to wear on the street when it hits in November. No wonder that, as the models took their seats for the finale, the audience rose to give a standing ovation. As Ghesquière took in the applause, Brigitte Macron, France's First Lady, broke ranks to give him a celebratory hug, paying homage to the saint of French fashion. The message? Catholics may have the Pope; France has Nicolas Ghesquière. Long may he reign. Hattie Brett's first job in journalism was editorial assistant of Grazia – and in 2018, she returned to the brand as Editor-In-Chief. That means she oversees all the editorial content, across print, digital and social. She loves campaigning on issues that really matter to her audience, for example calling on the governmentto hold an inquiry into the cost and accessibility of childcare. Her work commissioning, editing and creating content for Grazia's woman across everything from fashion to interiors and politics, won her BSME Editor of the Year in 2022. Prior to her current role, she has worked in women's media for almost 20 years, launching and editing a website for millennial women The Debrief before working as Deputy Lifestyle Director at The Telegraph across fashion, beauty and luxury.
Fashion Network
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Louis Vuitton stages conclave cruise show inside Avignon's Palais des Papes
Two weeks after a conclave elected a new pope in the Vatican, on Thursday evening in Avignon, Louis Vuitton staged a fashion conclave cruise show inside the city's Palais des Papes. 'Feminine knights. Arthurian legends,' smiled Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, in a pre-show preview of his heraldic expression of medieval mode-meets-tech futurism. Ghesquière built a huge web of scaffolding to support 450 guests on an elevated set inside a papal palace's Grand Cour, a massive interior courtyard. Pre-show, his signature Japanese gongs chimed every 30 seconds suggesting the calm before the storm. Nicolas opened the action with chivalric chic. Cape dresses with single arms were shaped like inverted shields and finished in jousting colors. A brilliant, magnified monogram cocktail in silver and anthracite sequins was topped by black leather shoulder armor. Space age chevaliers marched in flat-soled boots made of patchwork mirrors or heraldic motifs. If Chevalier Bayard were a woman this is what he would have liked to wear. Appearing in woolen gowns finished with fiery "Game of Thrones" motifs; sexy jacquard cocktails with fur trimmed pockets; or beautiful sparkling chiffon-gathered gowns. Maid Marion on the rampage. Many models sporting hair waxed down like shorn skull-caps, Joan of Arc on trial. As the music soared throughout climaxing with "Excalibur" by William Sheller, like the mythical sword cutting through the chilly spring evening caused by a strong mistral wind. Altogether, a superbly fresh fashion vision by Ghesquière, utilizing medieval ideas even as he subverted and reinvented them, in one of his greatest shows for Vuitton. Guests sat on conclave-worthy wooden chairs finished in cardinal's red as the cast marched along an illuminated catwalk. The models entered the set seemingly out of a gothic tower parading on an elevated runway before eventually posing on a vast flank of 20 rows of empty red cinema seats. The cast and audience all contained within the limestone palace-meets-fortress that was once the center of the papacy. For 67 years, until 1376, seven popes resided in Avignon, after a conflict between the Vatican and France and a deadlocked conclave allowed Philip IV to pressure the cardinals into accepting the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V. It was during this period, that pope Benoît XII began building the palace in 1335. A truly rare and magnificent medieval complex with cloisters, cobblestone lanes, steep stone stairs, spires and scores of gothic windows, the Palais des Papes was officially listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list 30 years ago, a recognition this show celebrated. These days, the palace also acts as the nerve center of the Festival d'Avignon, the greatest French language annual theatre celebration. The show was the first-ever inside the palace, and marked a shift for Ghesquière from the epoch-marking locations of his previous cruise shows: the space age Bob & Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs; the flying saucer MAC by Oscar Niemeyer in Rio; or Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York. Pre-show, stars mingled in a separate courtyard, Le Cour de Clôture - Emma Stone, Jaden Smith, Chloe Moretz, Cate Blanchett, Felix Lee, Pharrell Williams, Saoirse Ronan, Catherine Deneuve, and Alicia Vikander. Sipping champagne to sounds that mashed up eras and genres, just like Nicolas' fashion. The sound of the 70s - from Gerry Rafferty's classic ballad "Right Down the Line" to Bologna-based electronic disco, "Shadows From Nowhere" by Blue Gas. Post-show, the fare was simple but succulent: risotto cooked in huge hollowed-out wheels of parmigiana, washed down by Ruinart champagne. Back in the 14th century, they called the seven decades when the popes resided in Avignon the Babylonian Captivity. This evening, it felt like Nicolas Ghesquière had freed up a lot of ideas and liberated multiple minds. No one felt captive at this fashion conclave.
Fashion Network
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Louis Vuitton stages conclave cruise show inside Avignon's Palais des Papes
Two weeks after a conclave elected a new pope in the Vatican, on Thursday evening in Avignon, Louis Vuitton staged a fashion conclave cruise show inside the city's Palais des Papes. 'Feminine knights. Arthurian legends,' smiled Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, in a pre-show preview of his heraldic expression of medieval mode-meets-tech futurism. Ghesquière built a huge web of scaffolding to support 450 guests on an elevated set inside a papal palace's Grand Cour, a massive interior courtyard. Pre-show, his signature Japanese gongs chimed every 30 seconds suggesting the calm before the storm. Nicolas opened the action with chivalric chic. Cape dresses with single arms were shaped like inverted shields and finished in jousting colors. A brilliant, magnified monogram cocktail in silver and anthracite sequins was topped by black leather shoulder armor. Space age chevaliers marched in flat-soled boots made of patchwork mirrors or heraldic motifs. If Chevalier Bayard were a woman this is what he would have liked to wear. Appearing in woolen gowns finished with fiery "Game of Thrones" motifs; sexy jacquard cocktails with fur trimmed pockets; or beautiful sparkling chiffon-gathered gowns. Maid Marion on the rampage. Many models sporting hair waxed down like shorn skull-caps, Joan of Arc on trial. As the music soared throughout climaxing with "Excalibur" by William Sheller, like the mythical sword cutting through the chilly spring evening caused by a strong mistral wind. Altogether, a superbly fresh fashion vision by Ghesquière, utilizing medieval ideas even as he subverted and reinvented them, in one of his greatest shows for Vuitton. Guests sat on conclave-worthy wooden chairs finished in cardinal's red as the cast marched along an illuminated catwalk. The models entered the set seemingly out of a gothic tower parading on an elevated runway before eventually posing on a vast flank of 20 rows of empty red cinema seats. The cast and audience all contained within the limestone palace-meets-fortress that was once the center of the papacy. For 67 years, until 1376, seven popes resided in Avignon, after a conflict between the Vatican and France and a deadlocked conclave allowed Philip IV to pressure the cardinals into accepting the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V. It was during this period, that pope Benoît XII began building the palace in 1335. A truly rare and magnificent medieval complex with cloisters, cobblestone lanes, steep stone stairs, spires and scores of gothic windows, the Palais des Papes was officially listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list 30 years ago, a recognition this show celebrated. These days, the palace also acts as the nerve center of the Festival d'Avignon, the greatest French language annual theatre celebration. The show was the first-ever inside the palace, and marked a shift for Ghesquière from the epoch-marking locations of his previous cruise shows: the space age Bob & Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs; the flying saucer MAC by Oscar Niemeyer in Rio; or Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York. Pre-show, stars mingled in a separate courtyard, Le Cour de Clôture - Emma Stone, Jaden Smith, Chloe Moretz, Cate Blanchett, Felix Lee, Pharrell Williams, Saoirse Ronan, Catherine Deneuve, and Alicia Vikander. Sipping champagne to sounds that mashed up eras and genres, just like Nicolas' fashion. The sound of the 70s - from Gerry Rafferty's classic ballad "Right Down the Line" to Bologna-based electronic disco, "Shadows From Nowhere" by Blue Gas. Post-show, the fare was simple but succulent: risotto cooked in huge hollowed-out wheels of parmigiana, washed down by Ruinart champagne. Back in the 14th century, they called the seven decades when the popes resided in Avignon the Babylonian Captivity. This evening, it felt like Nicolas Ghesquière had freed up a lot of ideas and liberated multiple minds. No one felt captive at this fashion conclave.
Fashion Network
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Louis Vuitton stages conclave cruise show inside Avignon's Palais des Papes
Two weeks after a conclave elected a new pope in the Vatican, on Thursday evening in Avignon, Louis Vuitton staged a fashion conclave cruise show inside the city's Palais des Papes. 'Feminine knights. Arthurian legends,' smiled Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, in a pre-show preview of his heraldic expression of medieval mode-meets-tech futurism. Ghesquière built a huge web of scaffolding to support 450 guests on an elevated set inside a papal palace's Grand Cour, a massive interior courtyard. Pre-show, his signature Japanese gongs chimed every 30 seconds suggesting the calm before the storm. Nicolas opened the action with chivalric chic. Cape dresses with single arms were shaped like inverted shields and finished in jousting colors. A brilliant, magnified monogram cocktail in silver and anthracite sequins was topped by black leather shoulder armor. Space age chevaliers marched in flat-soled boots made of patchwork mirrors or heraldic motifs. If Chevalier Bayard were a woman this is what he would have liked to wear. Appearing in woolen gowns finished with fiery "Game of Thrones" motifs; sexy jacquard cocktails with fur trimmed pockets; or beautiful sparkling chiffon-gathered gowns. Maid Marion on the rampage. Many models sporting hair waxed down like shorn skull-caps, Joan of Arc on trial. As the music soared throughout climaxing with "Excalibur" by William Sheller, like the mythical sword cutting through the chilly spring evening caused by a strong mistral wind. Altogether, a superbly fresh fashion vision by Ghesquière, utilizing medieval ideas even as he subverted and reinvented them, in one of his greatest shows for Vuitton. Guests sat on conclave-worthy wooden chairs finished in cardinal's red as the cast marched along an illuminated catwalk. The models entered the set seemingly out of a gothic tower parading on an elevated runway before eventually posing on a vast flank of 20 rows of empty red cinema seats. The cast and audience all contained within the limestone palace-meets-fortress that was once the center of the papacy. For 67 years, until 1376, seven popes resided in Avignon, after a conflict between the Vatican and France and a deadlocked conclave allowed Philip IV to pressure the cardinals into accepting the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V. It was during this period, that pope Benoît XII began building the palace in 1335. A truly rare and magnificent medieval complex with cloisters, cobblestone lanes, steep stone stairs, spires and scores of gothic windows, the Palais des Papes was officially listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list 30 years ago, a recognition this show celebrated. These days, the palace also acts as the nerve center of the Festival d'Avignon, the greatest French language annual theatre celebration. The show was the first-ever inside the palace, and marked a shift for Ghesquière from the epoch-marking locations of his previous cruise shows: the space age Bob & Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs; the flying saucer MAC by Oscar Niemeyer in Rio; or Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York. Pre-show, stars mingled in a separate courtyard, Le Cour de Clôture - Emma Stone, Jaden Smith, Chloe Moretz, Cate Blanchett, Felix Lee, Pharrell Williams, Saoirse Ronan, Catherine Deneuve, and Alicia Vikander. Sipping champagne to sounds that mashed up eras and genres, just like Nicolas' fashion. The sound of the 70s - from Gerry Rafferty's classic ballad "Right Down the Line" to Bologna-based electronic disco, "Shadows From Nowhere" by Blue Gas. Post-show, the fare was simple but succulent: risotto cooked in huge hollowed-out wheels of parmigiana, washed down by Ruinart champagne. Back in the 14th century, they called the seven decades when the popes resided in Avignon the Babylonian Captivity. This evening, it felt like Nicolas Ghesquière had freed up a lot of ideas and liberated multiple minds. No one felt captive at this fashion conclave.
Fashion Network
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Louis Vuitton stages conclave cruise show inside Avignon's Palais des Papes
Two weeks after a conclave elected a new pope in the Vatican, on Thursday evening in Avignon, Louis Vuitton staged a fashion conclave cruise show inside the city's Palais des Papes. 'Feminine knights. Arthurian legends,' smiled Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, in a pre-show preview of his heraldic expression of medieval mode-meets-tech futurism. Ghesquière built a huge web of scaffolding to support 450 guests on an elevated set inside a papal palace's Grand Cour, a massive interior courtyard. Pre-show, his signature Japanese gongs chimed every 30 seconds suggesting the calm before the storm. Nicolas opened the action with chivalric chic. Cape dresses with single arms were shaped like inverted shields and finished in jousting colors. A brilliant, magnified monogram cocktail in silver and anthracite sequins was topped by black leather shoulder armor. Space age chevaliers marched in flat-soled boots made of patchwork mirrors or heraldic motifs. If Chevalier Bayard were a woman this is what he would have liked to wear. Appearing in woolen gowns finished with fiery "Game of Thrones" motifs; sexy jacquard cocktails with fur trimmed pockets; or beautiful sparkling chiffon-gathered gowns. Maid Marion on the rampage. Many models sporting hair waxed down like shorn skull-caps, Joan of Arc on trial. As the music soared throughout climaxing with "Excalibur" by William Sheller, like the mythical sword cutting through the chilly spring evening caused by a strong mistral wind. Altogether, a superbly fresh fashion vision by Ghesquière, utilizing medieval ideas even as he subverted and reinvented them, in one of his greatest shows for Vuitton. Guests sat on conclave-worthy wooden chairs finished in cardinal's red as the cast marched along an illuminated catwalk. The models entered the set seemingly out of a gothic tower parading on an elevated runway before eventually posing on a vast flank of 20 rows of empty red cinema seats. The cast and audience all contained within the limestone palace-meets-fortress that was once the center of the papacy. For 67 years, until 1376, seven popes resided in Avignon, after a conflict between the Vatican and France and a deadlocked conclave allowed Philip IV to pressure the cardinals into accepting the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V. It was during this period, that pope Benoît XII began building the palace in 1335. A truly rare and magnificent medieval complex with cloisters, cobblestone lanes, steep stone stairs, spires and scores of gothic windows, the Palais des Papes was officially listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list 30 years ago, a recognition this show celebrated. These days, the palace also acts as the nerve center of the Festival d'Avignon, the greatest French language annual theatre celebration. The show was the first-ever inside the palace, and marked a shift for Ghesquière from the epoch-marking locations of his previous cruise shows: the space age Bob & Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs; the flying saucer MAC by Oscar Niemeyer in Rio; or Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York. Pre-show, stars mingled in a separate courtyard, Le Cour de Clôture - Emma Stone, Jaden Smith, Chloe Moretz, Cate Blanchett, Felix Lee, Pharrell Williams, Saoirse Ronan, Catherine Deneuve, and Alicia Vikander. Sipping champagne to sounds that mashed up eras and genres, just like Nicolas' fashion. The sound of the 70s - from Gerry Rafferty's classic ballad "Right Down the Line" to Bologna-based electronic disco, "Shadows From Nowhere" by Blue Gas. Post-show, the fare was simple but succulent: risotto cooked in huge hollowed-out wheels of parmigiana, washed down by Ruinart champagne. Back in the 14th century, they called the seven decades when the popes resided in Avignon the Babylonian Captivity. This evening, it felt like Nicolas Ghesquière had freed up a lot of ideas and liberated multiple minds. No one felt captive at this fashion conclave.
