Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2018 Ready-To-Wear Collection..Fashionweekly..On Fow24news.com

You can get no closer to the surreal feeling of time travel than going into the crypt at the Louvre. Here, the remnants of the first fortress built on the grounds in the 12th century by Philip II to protect Paris against the Vikings still stands.
In the bright white lights of the Louis Vuitton show, the curved underground towers looked almost futuristic... too pristine to be old, too distant to be new. Maybe it was the four weeks of fashion shows coming to an end, but the space and time of it all were a bit mind-boggling. Nicolas Ghesquière could have found no better frame for his anachronistic Louis Vuitton show than this limbo of history.

Full-sleeved musketeer shirts were trapped under 18th century frock coats and long Louis XV waistcoats threaded in lurex brocade for a sparkly, electric majesty that wasn’t of our time - or a time we’ve ever known. Ghesquière had visited the Met in New York and fallen in love with a collection of original frock coats from the Baroque and Rococo eras. He thought, “What category of clothes can I explore to try to make a surprise with this flamboyant feeling?” The designer instinctively made the historical garments part of his contemporary urban world, he said backstage, by assimilating them into sportswear.