Louis Vuitton Resort 2021

COVID-19 is causing businesses and everyone to make life adjustments. And that includes the fashion industry. If you live in the States and in US cities that have opened department stores, you are experiencing this new normal and lifestyle adjustments. (Standing in the hot sun outside of a department store for up to an hour just to be admitted into shop is no party.)

That said; just as consumers are adjusting, so are fashion brands. Louis Vuitton usually presents its resort collections on cruise ships. Not this season.

For its resort 2021 collection, Louis Vuitton Creative Director Nicolas Ghesquière chose to photograph the 2021 resort collection at the brand’s studio in Paris, a major departure for the iconic brand.

The pandemic caused Ghesquière to reflect on his past—it’s hard to project toward the future when confronted with a global pandemic that is shaking the foundations of our planet. In this reflection, Ghesquière looked back at the successes of his tenure at Louis Vuitton. Something that popped up in his other 2020 collections for the iconic brand.

Interestingly, for this outing Ghesquière drew inspiration from the Louis Vuitton logo, creating variations on that theme, as well as reflecting on a time, not so long ago, when people went to an office to work.

By shooting the resort 2021 collection at the Louis Vuitton Paris studio, Ghesquière could make use of office equipment as props. And by looking inward, Ghesquière explores his signature territory of style-driven emotions, memorable colors, enthralling cuts, and curated wardrobe expertise. And when it comes to shape and silhouette, the graphic intention collection plays with the fantasy of illusion, where clubs bloom, spades pierce, diamonds sparkle, and the almighty heart reigns.

Ghesquière also has an interesting take on mixing and matching different shapes and silhouettes. Ghesquière pairs full trench coats with ruffled tops and sneakers; pinstriped, Gibson Girl-like tops with fit-to-flare skirts, color-blocked tops and skirts with ruffles and stilettoes. There is a lot of hard elements combined with soft elements in this resort collection, which, if you think about it, is a commentary of where we are in the world. (We need hard science if we are to understand the COVID-19 virus married with love and compassion for those who are ill and those who don’t have access to treatment.)

And just as Nicolas Ghesquière is reflecting on and drawing inspiration from a time when life was less complicated, while still projecting toward the future; perhaps, we should be doing the same thing. Hmm, easier said than done. Still, a phoenix rising out of the ashes!!

—William S. Gooch