After Palm Springs, Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto and San Diego, Louis Vuitton inaugurates its first show in Italy. The story, yesterday, could have started with "It was raining that evening on Isola Bella", the most baroque of the Borromean Islands, a fantastic and tiny island posed like a mirage on Lake Maggiore in Italy that also hosts for the first time in its history a fashion show. Nicolas Ghesquière wanted to unveil his Louis Vuitton cruise collection in the island's paradise gardens. Staged like a green pyramid of flowers and greenery, they stand like a ship on the waters. But the pouring rain caused the whole assembly to retreat into the no less extraordinary baroque palace built by the illustrious Borromeo family in the 17th century, whose descendants still own the island.
Louis Vuitton Cruise Show 2024
In pictures
View slideshow50 photos
View slideshow50 photos
An island rising from the waters
The magic of the place still worked as in a waking dream. First there are these rocks emerging from the lake that host its wonderful Italian gardens, spectacular terraces crossed by flowers, lemon trees, orange trees, grapefruit trees and a huge camphor tree that stands at the entrance. A fantastic setting where the statues, fountains, obelisks and a carved Unicorn, symbol of the Borromeo family, adorning the Teatro Massimo, also invites you to revisit the fascinating history of this island that dates back several centuries. In the 16th century precisely when Charles III Borromeo plans to transform it into a garden of cedars, flowers and dwellings according to his words to offer it to his wife Isabella. Isola Bella was born.
Oprah Winfrey and Pharrell Williams in Front Row
Symbol of Italian luxury, the island has seen illustrious characters fascinated by its beauty and bucolic splendor. Goethe stopped there, Stendhal too, and Ernest Hemingway fell madly in love with it. The Palace has also welcomed Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Victoria and Prince Charles and Lady Diana. On Wednesday evening, arriving by boat via Stresa, another impressive list of international stars disembarked in this suspended place. Catherine Deneuve, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone, Jennifer Connelly, Alicia Vikander, Léa Seydoux, Noémie Merlant, Marina Foïs, Jaden Smith... settle in the baroque palace where paintings, stuccoes, crystals, tapestries and precious stones abound. Oprah Winfrey and Pharrell Williams (whose first collection for Louis Vuitton Homme will be discovered on June 20th) are also settling down, breaking all records for photographers' flashes.
Post-modern sirens
From this fantastic island, Nicolas Ghesquière has drawn a dreamlike red thread, like a tale of anticipation populated by fabulous postmodern creatures. Here, on the Italian lakes, some villas with hanging gardens served as sets for Star Wars, leading the creator to connect his futuristic visions with the botanical and baroque setting of Isola Bella. "We started from the idea that girls came from the water, like the mermaids of the lake, and that they transformed," he said to explain his whimsical fairy tale with a futuristic look.
The stars at the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 show at Isola Bella
In pictures
View slideshow45 photos
View slideshow45 photos
Neoprene and baroque headdresses
The first passages set the tone with these contemporary mermaids dressed in neoprene, in trousers, cyclists, pleated miniskirts and jackets with rounded shoulders printed with wonderful aquatic prints and enhanced with collars in the shape of fins. Some are wearing baroque headgear custom-made for the parade by a Roman workshop that makes costumes for Italian cinema and opera. These water girls also come out in dresses with frozen drapes, cashmere shorts and large embroidered shirts that end in tails.
Jacquard cape and shell skirts
These Italian aristocrats wearing sneakers or strapped flat leather boots do not hesitate to mix baroque and botanical, dreamlike and nautical in perfect harmony with the splendor of Isola Bella. New princesses of the Riviera who wear on their surfer jerseys large capes in open silk jacquards like bathrobes embroidered with drops of water. Others wear jeans with sumptuous brocade, macrosequin-inflated skirts that look like shell millefeuilles, or sequined floral dresses inspired by the island's plantations. There are also those that warm their semi-transparent dresses embroidered with Belle-Époque stained glass motifs with beautiful classic coats with quiet luxury perfectly adapted to the zeitgeist.
Magical Night
Laucat leathers and fishshell-style embroidery run through this collection, whose multiple stylistic tracks play as well on the urban and sportswear look as on the grand soir spirit. Very noticed, large colorful bucket bags of sailor that the models hold in hand punctuate the passages. It is the return of the Hike, a historical model of the house. In the evening, these socialites of Stresa come out in romantic long dresses with suspenders in pastel shades in an organza hive and bubbling sleeves down their shoulders. On Isola Bella, this magical night has only just begun...
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ED5WZMUDW5CWRLYP4O7UWITNYI.jpg)
