Nicolas Ghesquière - Designer, Creative Director of Louis Vuitton

[Lola701]

^^
I don’t find his dresses that difficult to wear, even more those in fluid fabrics.
The one on Charlotte looks great but then again she is tall and has long legs.

Someone like Marina Fois, who has for years, exclusively wore NG’s clothes looked good in Balenciaga. She wore a lot of commercial stuff, wore it in her real life but somehow always made it work.

I think at Vuitton nowadays she is mostly hits/misses when she attends the shows but it works often. She is petite but she still has great legs.

Part of fashion also is to know your best assets, your body and what you want to display. It’s also a feeling rather than just pure « it’s flattering ».

The jackets are not that bad! A fitted wool/cashmere sweater works ;-)

You just had to size up tbh.
Because they had issues in terms of sizing from the early days when he joined the Gucci Group and also the very fitted silhouette thing, a lot of women sized up.
I always wore a 38 at Balenciaga except for the last few seasons when he did more boxier/oversized shapes.

I must say that more than NG, it’s really clothes from the early to mid 00´s, the very fitted silhouette. In a way we dressed in a simpler way. A jacket, a shirt, a tshirt, a scarf. The oversized trend started really in the late 00’s early 10´s allows us to layer and play with volumes.

Now the oversized trend is just too much.

 

[FashionPower]

I was gifted of a LV coffee table book featuring images of womenswear show from first MJ show (1998) to NG FW18. Nicholas has never been my favorite designer but damn looking at the MJ shows I couldn't stop thinking "Who would wear these clown looks in 2025?", while for Nicholas everything looked luxurious, elevated but most importantly wearable, relevant and actual.
Given very few exceptions (FW03) MJ either looked way too generic (Zara like with a sprinkle of COS) or drag Queen couture a la Galliano, something that you would never be able to wear with a straight face.
The topic I want to raise and discuss with you guys is the stark and steep shift in NG aesthetic at Vuitton: all the collections prior to pandemic (of course with the usual and expected highs and lows) looked super luxurious with the right amount of fashion forwardness and avant gardness you expect from NG. Nicholas likes his scifi videogame 80's aesthetic but it was done with taste and a certain Professional approach. After pandemic however...cumbersome looks, ridicolous proportions, everything now looks heavy, too pretentious and quirky looking, giving huge Raf Simons vibes "I do ugly because I am NG / Raf and I can afford to do so cause I am the Best and no one can criticize me!". I am also thinking about the customers: how do the ladies Who bought FW14, the Monaco Cruise or FW15 feel about the skateboard SS11 collection? There is no doubt the first 5 years at Vuitton were his Best but I want to know what happened to get his aesthetic and creative vision change so much.

 

[hamburgers]

^
I know everyone loves Marc for good reason, but his clothes have always looked like literal vintage replicas or costumes on the racks even moreso than Michele. I remember seeing his number 1 muse Rachel Feinstein running around in Michele's Gucci much more than MJ in the mid 10's. Sometimes too much industry goodwill is a bad thing because no one wants to criticize you, but then your business sinks when no one buys your stuff silently and you don't know why.

About Nicolas, I think it's just a mixture of him heading into his midlife crisis, Natacha Ramsay-Levi leaving, and having to deal with Gen Z/post pandemic vibe shift. After Natacha left for Chloe, most of the collections felt a little less "real" to me but I can't explain why. She freelances on the pre-fall destination shows now so you can compare pre-fall 2023 and pre-fall 2024 to the rest of that year's collections to see what I mean. Maybe it's less oversized and experimental with silhouette.

SS21 was tough to watch but easy on the racks when you took it in as casual statement separates. You could wear comfortable athleisure garbage under any of the statement jackets/coats or a plain t shirt with any of the pants/shorts and you'd have a full pandemic casual look. Just don't wear them together lol which is part of the issue with Nicolas LV now. His separates are still fantastic, but you never get to see them as separates because of full look policy and how hard the RTW is to get to.

 

[Caffeine]

I was gifted of a LV coffee table book featuring images of womenswear show from first MJ show (1998) to NG FW18. Nicholas has never been my favorite designer but damn looking at the MJ shows I couldn't stop thinking "Who would wear these clown looks in 2025?", while for Nicholas everything looked luxurious, elevated but most importantly wearable, relevant and actual.
Given very few exceptions (FW03) MJ either looked way too generic (Zara like with a sprinkle of COS) or drag Queen couture a la Galliano, something that you would never be able to wear with a straight face.
The topic I want to raise and discuss with you guys is the stark and steep shift in NG aesthetic at Vuitton: all the collections prior to pandemic (of course with the usual and expected highs and lows) looked super luxurious with the right amount of fashion forwardness and avant gardness you expect from NG. Nicholas likes his scifi videogame 80's aesthetic but it was done with taste and a certain Professional approach. After pandemic however...cumbersome looks, ridicolous proportions, everything now looks heavy, too pretentious and quirky looking, giving huge Raf Simons vibes "I do ugly because I am NG / Raf and I can afford to do so cause I am the Best and no one can criticize me!". I am also thinking about the customers: how do the ladies Who bought FW14, the Monaco Cruise or FW15 feel about the skateboard SS11 collection? There is no doubt the first 5 years at Vuitton were his Best but I want to know what happened to get his aesthetic and creative vision change so much.

Even though his LV rtw is less appealing to me than his Balenciaga rtw, I found his current offerings more forgiving for women with normal proportions. i.e. the things that hit the stores are made with better proportions than the Balenciaga offerings back in the days. The production process is probably more rigorous.

The following FW2024 dress was only altered moderately to fit a tiny bit closer to my upper body. The rest was not touched whatsoever. The armholes, the waistline, the skirt length, etc. are all scaled right for an average sized woman like me.

This is in contrast to the Balenciaga dress from my post a few days ago.

(btw, Marc's LV clothes was also "proportioned" correctly. But his MJ Collection clothes never had much model-to-average-women translation issue to begin with.
Re: NG's pre-pandemic LV RTW was never my thing lol)

 

[Frida]

 

[rowjellies]

 

[PDFSD]

did not learn from his Kaisik Wong nostalgia copy at balenciaga. lol

there are more things he frankenstein in other collections but i will not flex lol

 

[Lola701]

I’m so curious to know in which point of the creative process this comes actually. Was this the starting point or they came across this while doing research or did he purchased it a long time ago.
And also if it’s part of his personal archives or Vuitton’s because obviously it helped in terms of fabrics development.

I’m actually glad that he purchased the costume. Not so much is known about designers personal archives. Obviously Azzedine had, Karl at some point had, I know Hedi at some point had. The same for Isabel Marant and MGC. I wonder if Galliano has one too…Probably. You couldn’t love Vionnet and Poiret so much without owning at least 1 dress.
I knew Nicolas had archives of his work but now I wonder what else is part of that.

 

[jeanclaude]

WOW. NG copying again!! I am going to pretend I am surprised...

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

Inspired? Crazy how not a single element was added

 

[KilltheLook]

I’m not surprised about him copying the costume. What’s great about him (and Phoebe) is they are masters in mixing references and make them believable. Sometimes the inspiration did come off too strong (like this look) but I rather have one copy look and a decent collection than a 58 looks designed for Zara lol.

 

[PDFSD]

I’m so curious to know in which point of the creative process this comes actually. Was this the starting point or they came across this while doing research or did he purchased it a long time ago.
And also if it’s part of his personal archives or Vuitton’s because obviously it helped in terms of fabrics development.

I’m actually glad that he purchased the costume. Not so much is known about designers personal archives. Obviously Azzedine had, Karl at some point had, I know Hedi at some point had. The same for Isabel Marant and MGC. I wonder if Galliano has one too…Probably. You couldn’t love Vionnet and Poiret so much without owning at least 1 dress.
I knew Nicolas had archives of his work but now I wonder what else is part of that.

NG bought it in 2019 the shop owners say in the video & via their online store paid full price & and shipping in comments IG lol

I can confirm you as ex ..... they have lots of vintage in archive stored and bought every season many brands have either via renting or buying vintage they are kept some are given or sold to the studio to get rid of surplus .....Dior Prada Gucci LV Hermes basically all big brands work with a lot of vintage. Hermes has a studio just for research on images and objects that are filled for each department when approved it fits in hermes universe for current or further development. (the studio sole job is to ask/propose is or can this be hermes )

NG literary works like assemblage for vintage (like many studios) & somethings are from sketch as well some mixed some like you see are copy but done in technical fabrication of some sorts to be more sci fi.
the teams make also proposals following the direction given per category and this is then added in the mix but when he does the looks with his yes man tiny small team, the bigger wider team is not present.
a picture of a vintage lamp in metal that has some special design can be a fabric idea that then informs a skirt or dress.

the design director gives you his feedbacks to work on for your pieces some things can end up for another department, if you did something for a top in knit but he likes to do it in leather the leather team takes it over etc

that's why you see so many different thing and often disjointed thrown together to be non referential to the classic vintage starting points

 

[PDFSD]

like this stuff :



this inspo was also used for david red dress at ferragamo


even the leather belted top is from a vintage Beene dress with the front insert and side belt he added a second row of belt to it if i remember well (the dress was on a auction grey with brown leather belt insert just like his version - i can't find it in my archives now )




his right hand still has an old pinterest account open lol you can see the mixing of ideas ref. /moods early LV days

 

[Lola701]

like this stuff :

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this inspo was also used for david red dress at ferragamo

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even the leather belted top is from a vintage Beene dress with the front insert and side belt he added a second row of belt to it if i remember well (the dress was on a auction grey with brown leather belt insert just like his version - i can't find it in my archives now )


View attachment 1382129

his right hand still has an old pinterest account open lol you can see the mixing of ideas ref. /moods early LV days

And there are even more moments at Balenciaga btw, isolated from the SS2002 thing.
But that I know about Nicolas.

Thank you for your insight.

I have to say that for me always, what intrigues me from designers is the creative process. It always informs about the fashion culture of a designer.

Someone like Miuccia would raid Cardin’s work, pick up one thing and stretch a collection out of it.


I have less respect for people who copies their contemporaries from season to season. And now I’m thinking about Proenza Schouler or Zuhair Murad. I hope the PS duo will elevate their process. I actually wonder what their fashion culture is about genuinely. How do you end up always copying designers from the 00’s when you are 80’s kids who grew up with fashion from the 90’s…

 

[PDFSD]

And there are even more moments at Balenciaga btw, isolated from the SS2002 thing.
But that I know about Nicolas.

Thank you for your insight.

I have to say that for me always, what intrigues me from designers is the creative process. It always informs about the fashion culture of a designer.

Someone like Miuccia would raid Cardin’s work, pick up one thing and stretch a collection out of it.


I have less respect for people who copies their contemporaries from season to season. And now I’m thinking about Proenza Schouler or Zuhair Murad. I hope the PS duo will elevate their process. I actually wonder what their fashion culture is about genuinely. How do you end up always copying designers from the 00’s when you are 80’s kids who grew up with fashion from the 90’s…

And there are even more moments at Balenciaga btw, isolated from the SS2002 thing.

oh yes i have a list lol like kate bush space suit for his fw 2001 balenciaga ...i feel always the most intricate pieces have a costume vintage behind it and the pieces i liked the most so was always bit disappointing that it was not 90% from him lol

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

It is depressing to discover that one of my favorite looks from the show was actually plagiarized.

To me is everything the same: Nicolas plagiarizing vintage, Proenza plagiarizing Nicolas, Zara plagiarizing both Proenza and Nicolas.

There is creativity and originality, and then there is smart cunning lazy people copying.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

I would not call Nicolas lazy… He’s a sum of his experiences and interests. Who gives a sh*t. He reworks everything into a new context to mean something else. Anyone who cares about him already knows what he’s into and doesn’t have to be surprised if he offers a remix of something obviously classic. He’s not just sitting in a dark room doing LSD coming up with ideas out of thin air.

 

[style_expert]

There’s a fine line between being inspired by something and outright one-to-one copying. I’ve always found the “but everyone does it” excuse rather weak.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with referencing — it’s more about how it’s done. For me, the most compelling work often draws on non-cliché, and somewhat obscure sources, ideally from other disciplines.

Thanks for posting PDFSD — really interesting to see!

 

[susseinmcswanny]

^ I agree but it’s also about expectations. Who are you comparing him to?

 

[Lola701]

And there are even more moments at Balenciaga btw, isolated from the SS2002 thing.

oh yes i have a list lol like kate bush space suit for his fw 2001 balenciaga ...i feel always the most intricate pieces have a costume vintage behind it and the pieces i liked the most so was always bit disappointing that it was not 90% from him lol

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I get the disappointment part lol.
I don’t know, maybe I don’t see the big deal about it because I interned in fashion when I was very young so I understood quite early that the creative process wasn’t linear. That it wasn’t only of waking up and drawing. There are looks that were literally copies of a movie on the runway. But it made sense in terms of context and for the house.

That being said, I had somewhat of the same when I discovered that Azzedine’s repertoire was in fact based on costumes from movies. He talked about Arlettie a lot but when I saw her movies and realized that his whole signature was based on that, I was stunted. Then when discovering Adrian, it became even more obvious.

But it eventually allowed me to expand my culture. And the copies are never « gratuites ». Because between the copies, there are original ideas and also innovations.

And I must admit that sometimes I enjoy some copies. When Nicolas is copying Gianni for example. Or when he copies Gaultier for obvious reasons.

All the designers and even our favorites copies but I think I our judgement comes from how and who do they copy.

On that I though it was maybe a bit unfair for Mugler to call out Rousteing years ago. Olivier is a fan. Ok, he could have been more subtle about it but Balenciaga and Dior could have called out Mugler for copying them…Even though beyond his copies, he also had original ideas.