Yahoo Lifestyle Louis Vuitton Women’s Fall 2025: Lots to Choo-Choo-Choose From
Everyone has some memories of train stations and platforms: sweet hellos, difficult goodbyes, brain-numbing commutes, heading home for the holidays — or for the 0.01 percent, a sumptuous voyage on the Orient Express.
Nicolas Ghesquière folded some of those — plus movie references galore, Agatha Christie whodunits included — into his frisky fall collection for Louis Vuitton, an eclectic display of characters on all kinds of journeys, not forgetting the service crew members in their very ’80s uniforms.
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Ghesquière’s avant-garde creations can sometimes leave you cold, but here you felt more of a fun factor as the designer spun out multiple storylines like the endless rails, creating outfits for the all-walks-of-life types you might encounter at Grand Central and St. Pancras, or on the big screen. You could spot a yoga teacher, a private detective, fishing and camping enthusiasts, party girls and — wait a minute — was that model lugging a ukulele à la Marilyn Monroe, who strummed up a storm between the seats in “Some Like it Hot”?
“I think it is important, especially nowadays, to tell stories that touch everyone, to stir emotions that everyone can understand,” Ghesquière told WWD during a preview, noting that the station theme “opened many possibilities for a collection,” not only because travel is core to Vuitton’s DNA.
He polled members of his design team for their favorite films involving trains, which surfaced a plethora of titles, among them “Brief Encounters,” “2046,” “That Obscure Object of Desire,” “Snowpiercer,” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
All week rumors were flying that Vuitton’s secret show location was Gare du Nord, perhaps aboard a real train, echoing Dior and Vuitton mega spectacles of yore.
In fact, the venue was right next door to that gritty Paris train station — the courtyard of a disused office building that once housed a private railway company controlled by the Rothschilds. Ghesquière and stage designer extraordinaire Es Devlin constructed a sleek waiting room that, in photos at least, resembled a Thomas Demand artwork. The seats were hard, the lighting was cold, and the windows above were replaced with monitors depicting travelers hurrying to and fro.
In lieu of announcements or elevator music, Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” clanged before the show, foreshadowing a capsule of clothes and leather goods in collaboration with the pioneering electronic band from Düsseldorf. One look was a pin-striped shirt extended into a jumpsuit, with the album art plastered on the back.
Ghesquière’s show spanned 60 exits and there was a lot to unpack. Technical performance outerwear, ruched velvet skirts, cargo shorts, bulky New Wave sweaters and egg-shaped ruffled skirts all came jumbled together, not always harmoniously. Had they dressed in haste?
The long, fluid looks stood out amid the rushing crowd: Translucent trenchcoats in rubbery fabrics, floral slipdresses, and haphazardly draped gowns and skirts in flocked velvets. Buffalo plaid blankets wound into a makeshift dress or a cozy top were unexpected.
Some models toted blankets; others hat boxes, violin trunks, or little vanity cases in ’50s colors.
During a preview, Ghesquière highlighted a host of other newsy accessories, including re-editions of silk squares by Sol Lewitt, Andrée Putman, César Baldaccini, Richard Peduzzi and Jean-Pierre Raynaud.
Also set for a comeback is Vuitton’s first watch with a ceramic bezel, designed by Gae Aulenti, first released in 1988, and alway useful when you have a train to catch.
Launch Gallery: Louis Vuitton Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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