DREAMTEAM

What goes into the seamless sheen of a Hollywood star’s awards-season wardrobe? A muse, a modernist and a lot of painstaking work, as Vogue discovers.

What goes into the seamless sheen of a Hollywood star’s awards-season wardrobe?

Though Nicolas Ghesquière’s cabal of muses at the house of Louis Vuitton is small, it takes a lot to stay a favourite of the dynamic mind of the creative director for more than one season. Michelle Williams has kept Ghesquière enthralled with her brand of youthful poise and modern elegance, all within a petite frame and an ice-blonde crop. Together with Hollywood stylist Kate Young, they dream up one-off red carpet pieces, manifestations of the house’s modern approach to dressing made real by the tireless atelier workers. “I have known Nicolas for a very long time. He studies my mood board and makes proposals which I then show to Michelle. It is a true collaboration,” she says. Young’s conversation-starting partnership with Williams traces back to the 2006 Academy Awards, when Williams wore that mustard Vera Wang dress. “That changed everything!” says Young. “She was the girl everyone was talking about.” So what goes into an award season’s worth of dresses?

Below, from left: at the 2017 Academy Awards in Hollywood last February; sketches of the dress by Louis Vuitton artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière with official stamp (bottom right). To create the texture, three embroidered tulles – with crystal dots...