The Glorious Decade: Nicolas Ghesquière Proves Once Again That in France Fashion is a Soft Power

Reflecting on the inspiration behind the spring-summer 2025 collection, Nicolas Ghesquière reminisced about his childhood in the Loire Valley, mentioning its famous chateaux and discussing the Renaissance. However, this collection, along with his love for historical costume and his ongoing experiments with it, highlights his other fascination – with the ‘80s, the decade of his youth, which he revisits over and over again. Each time, the fashion of the ‘80s, bold, flashy, and occasionally quite wild, is transformed into something very unique and distinctly Ghesquière-like.

This season, the catwalk show began with six looks featuring puffed sleeves, cinched waists, and peplum hem jackets paired with biker shorts. These were designed to channel the vibe of a Renaissance costume (let’s assume it was sort of pourpoint), but crafted to remove all rigid structure, leaving them as light and silky as possible. In an interview with Vogue USA, Ghesquière explained: “The game was to work with the two ateliers — there’s “flou” and there’s “tailleur” (french terms used for two couture techniques) — and we break boundaries. It’s a contraction, to build these clothes with as much detail and structure, letting go of gravity somehow.” The show concluded with three other jackets showcasing paintings by French artist Laurent Grasso from his series “Studies into the Past”, which blends contemporary images of celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena with Renaissance-style landscapes. Both the opening and closing looks had a distinctly ‘80s vibe. These two main aesthetic references framed the collection. But what lay within this frame?

Quite a few remarkable clothing items, actually. One example would be the hourglass-shaped tunics with asymmetrical fastenings, paired with one-legged silk trousers that literally had only one pant leg. The combination of “black leather on top, red silk on the bottom” was particularly striking. Another example would be the loose tops adorned with crystals worn with transparent pantaloons that fell just below the knees.

All of these clothes highlight the most important quality of Nicolas Ghesquière’s work. These trousers, jackets, dresses and tunics were not simply copy-pasted from vintage archives or taken straight from the street; they were crafted by a brilliant creative mind. Even a seemingly obvious stylistic combination like biker shorts paired with a bold, lavish jacket featuring a historical reference (originally pioneered by Ghesquière himself) was created by a true visionary, erasing any trace of cliché.

We remember his virtuoso mastery of form from the time of his early collections for Balenciaga. This mastery has stayed with him, making it especially delightful to see his creations now, after a decade of working as Louis Vuitton's creative director. It is the power of the French Maisons to be backed by genuine fashion designers who just as Ghesquière master the art of cut, silhouette, proportions, and volumes. Hopefully, this skill of his will remain strong in the next decade of his LV’s tenure.

Courtesy: Louis Vuitton
Text: Elena Stafyeva