Louis Vuitton’s Spectacular Pre-Fall Show In Seoul

A windswept Jamsugyo Bridge in Seoul was the dramatic setting for Nicolas Ghesquière’s first Pre-Fall show for Louis Vuitton, complete with a water and light display masterminded by Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk, and Hoyeon Jung first onto the runway. Fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen was there.

 

Louis Vuitton went to Seoul for its first Pre-Fall show

Talk about getting swept away! On Saturday evening on a mile-long bridge in Seoul, a near-Arctic wind turned up the drama on Nicolas Ghesquière’s first Pre-Fall runway show for Louis Vuitton. It was the kind of epic theatre only nature could orchestrate: guests wrapped their heads in blankets and passed heat packs down the rows as the icy breeze carried his models across the Jamsugyo Bridge to a suspenseful Hitchcockian soundtrack. It climaxed in a mega-scale water show illuminated by locals surfing the pitch-black Hangang River on their neon-lit jet skis. The riveting experience framed a collection founded in the archetypes of Ghesquière’s work for Louis Vuitton.

A water and light show was created by Hwang Dong-hyuk

“I’d been thinking about it for a while: South Korea’s atmosphere suits me. Especially its cinema aesthetics. The Host is one of my favourite films and Bae Doona is a close friend,” Ghesquière said, referring to Bong Joon-ho’s cult monster film and its lead actress. Another friend opened the show: Hoyeon Jung, the Louis Vuitton model who went on to star in Squid Game directed by Hwang Dong, who – with perfect synergy – had been invited to create the scenography for Ghesquière’s first show in Seoul, turning the bridge into a massive mesmerising fountain illuminated by illusory light projections.

The Jamsugyo Bridge was perfect for Ghesquière’s philosophy

Ghesquière chose the Jamsugyo Bridge as a symbol of the “to and from” philosophy at the heart of Louis Vuitton’s travel-centric ethos. The lower level bridge, which connects the Gangnam and Gangbuk areas of the city, was built in 1976 and hovers just above the waterline.

“It disappears when the Hangang River rises during the monsoon. It’s a feat of civil engineering that creates the illusion of disappearance/reappearance,” the designer explained. The idea of a manmade structure that interacts with nature chimed with some of Ghesquière’s previous location choices, which have included the Miho Museum in the mountains of Kyoto and the hilltop Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul de Vence.

The collection captured the spirit of Ghesquière in the ease of Pre-Fall

With its time-travelling sensibilities, Ghesquière’s work never feels more at home than on a destination-show platform. On the Jamsugyo Bridge, he illustrated that fact with a collection that imbued sportswear with silhouettes lifted from the wardrobes of history and expressed in a certain Pre-Fall ease: track tops, boilers suits, techy dresses and miniskirts, graphic puffer jackets and his signature sci-fi-soled sneakers. “For our first show in Seoul, it's a way of presenting our savoir-faire, like a kind of diplomatic journey, a Louis Vuitton caravanserai that comes to South Korea to recount various chapters in its history,” he said. It culminated in dramatic supersized dress shapes and flowy shirt-and-trouser looks augmented by fine embroideries and glistening embellishments.

Jaden Smith performed at the party

After the show, guests braved the blistering breeze and made the walk to the river bank, where Louis Vuitton had taken out the Floating Islands events space – another architectural pearl – and Jaden Smith performed to an audience that included his mother Jada Pinkett Smith, Chloë Grace Moretz and Alicia Vikander. On 24 May Ghesquière will once again take his show on the road, presenting a cruise collection on Isola Bella, an island in Lago Maggiore.