A train speeds through time, past platforms filled with fleeting glances and half-finished goodbyes. No schedule, no destination—only movement. For Fall/Winter 2025, Nicolas Ghesquière invites us aboard a collection on a never-ending express where emotions are luggage, passengers are stories, and the ride is relentless. A nod to Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, a touch of Brief Encounter’s wartime longing, the claustrophobic chaos of Snowpiercer, and the romantic fatalism of Casablanca—all rushing past the window, a blur of sentiment and style.
RELATED: Women Win: The Female Creative Director Also Rises
L’Étoile du Nord, an old train headquarters frozen in time, became the perfect station for this departure. But this was no period piece. If anything, it was a collision—19th-century railway nostalgia meeting the sleek speed of today. Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express pulsed through the air, an electronic heartbeat for a collection that felt like a wardrobe assembled from the comings and goings of a thousand strangers. The businesswoman with his neatly belted overcoat. The artist with a slouchy striped jumpsuit, scarf trailing like a signature in motion. The woman with a face you’ll never forget, gliding past in a liquid dress, her hatbox in hand.
Ghesquière’s Vuitton has always existed at the intersection of past and future, but here, he erased the boundary altogether. Cape coats billowed like train smoke. Velvet and silk carried old-world luxury, while slick monogrammed belt bags grounded the look in the now. Ruffle skirts tumbled like cascading scenery outside a train window. There were outfits for every kind of traveler: those catching red-eyes, those arriving with grand gestures, those vanishing into the night.
The rush of silhouettes and textures presents a story of adventure, escape, reunion, and departure. A Keepall in softened hues announced L’Express, a new addition to the Vuitton luggage lineage, because no matter how fast you move, some things are worth carrying forward. The spirit of travel, of change, of dressing for wherever you’re going next, remains intact.
The train has left the station, and Ghesquière is still at the helm, charting an itinerary unknown. But here’s no crash in sight. The horizon is clear as day.
Photos: LOUIS VUITTON
Latest Posts
Latest Issue
