Water world: Louis Vuitton takes a retro-modern look at cruise

Monaco – For his second runway outing as creative director at French luxury brand Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière delivered a resort-themed cruise collection that fused retro design aesthetics with modern craftsmanship.

While taking inspiration from the coastline for cruise clothing might be a cliché, in Ghesquière’s hands, aside from the Monaco setting, it wasn’t. The collection featured intricate embroidery implying coral branches snaking down a knee-length black and azure skirt while porthole cut-outs decorated a crop sweater worn with waist-high lemon trousers. The aquatic, hyper-natural theme continued with a digital runway showing moving images of waves over rocks, shot by the artist Ange Leccia in Corsica. ‘I liked the spirit of the girls walking on digital water,’ Ghesquière told Style.com

Photographer Juergen Teller created an ad campaign, A Trip or Voyage, with scenes from rocky coastlines. Ghesquière describes the cruise collection as ‘going off the beaten track’ and as being an exploration in transformational clothing.

Luxury brands are placing more emphasis on their cruise collections as they are in store for longer and customers prefer to get a head start on key new season looks. Chanel also held a lavish cruise collection event in Dubai last week, targeting its Middle Eastern customers. For Louis Vuitton, fashion and travel go hand in hand. Read our Luxury Travel Futures market report for the latest industry trends.