A series of columns, descending on the elegant angle of an escalator, traversing the horizontal of the catwalk...
Each look was a strict rectangle when considered from the perspective of an architect’s elevation, interrupted on the horizontal at three levels, with the sleeve heads offering the only deviation from the straight and narrow. This strict template was inspired in part by the conceptual artist Daniel Buren and his work Les Deux Plateaux, a series of 260 columns of three different heights arranged in a grid within the great courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris. This was the first ever Louis Vuitton collection where the monogram was nowhere to be seen; instead, the damier pattern provided the house’s signature. Squares in differing colours and textures and at varying scales gave the clothes and accessories a starkly graphic quality.
For all its crisp, clean lines and bold blankness, the collection still included the labour-intensive embellishments for which Louis Vuitton is famous. The tiniest sequins ever produced were arranged by the thousand to create fluid metallic surfaces, while slightly larger paillettes were stacked four-deep and stitched in precise grids to create geometric relief textures. ‘Tuffetage’, a technique taken from carpet-making, was embroidered on cloth and leather to create a flock-like effect. Surfaces were decorated with goose feathers, applied with painstaking care to produce a perfectly even texture and trimmed to create crisp-edged squares.
S.I.
