Redefining the Art of Gender Dressing
Louis Vuitton artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière unravels the inspiration behind Spring/Summer 2021—exploring the idea and significance of androgynous dressing.
What is the inspiration for this collection?
More than an inspiration, it’s a question, the very significant one of gender. We’re going beyond the basic idea that a woman gains power by co-opting the masculine wardrobe. What space is there for a category of clothing between feminine and masculine? It’s a growing space and its contours are ever more permeable. We’re defining a type of clothing that lives in a non-binary zone. It’s fascinating to consider. What is a non-binary garment? Inevitably, it’s the designer’s role to offer a point of view.
What’s distinctive about it?
By way of pure demonstration, it could be the structure of a jacket that’s in-between—as feminine as it is masculine. Or for example,
the t-shirt dresses in the final series. They could be dresses, but they could also be exaggerated t-shirts that skaters wear over shorts, or something basketball players might wear. Classic overcoats are finished like oversized sweaters. Phosphorescent fabrics lend the impression of movement, like mercury—the chemical quicksilver—or a changing sky. It’s an interplay of appearance and disappearance. Something chameleon-like.
“WE’RE DEFINING A TYPE OF CLOTHING THAT LIVES IN A NON-BINARY ZONE. IT’S FASCINATING TO CONSIDER. WHAT IS A NON-BINARY GARMENT?”
Is it a new style?
I find myself back to what I’ve always loved doing, which in the end defines my work throughout my career as a designer. Stylistic hybrids. Patchworks of different materials. How to mix sartorial opposites, bring them together, fuse them. If you take a powerful term like ‘gender-fluid’ and apply it to fashion, it’s really the idea of fluidity in a garment that moves harmoniously from one to the other, and which is one and the other. That’s all the more important today, when we see how clothing can become the centre of debate about what a man or a woman should wear. How we can call someone into question based on what they wear. I was struck by a news story about English students in uniform who, during a heatwave, were so hot the boys wore the girls’ pleated skirts in protest. Society is evolving faster than protocol. Obviously, those who personify this most are those who define themselves as nonbinary. But more and more people are totally comfortable with wearing clothes that don’t traditionally align with their gender. It’s an interesting phase, and it opens up lots of creative possibilities in fashion. Before, we always defined the characteristics of one gender while attributing them to the other. Today, there’s this neutral zone that un-categorises everything.
Can you please describe that neutral zone?
What if being non-aligned were engaging? Being neutral can be radical. There’s nothing bland about it: neutrality can be powerful, extreme and expressive. It's a galvanising exercise. On some styles, prints are made up of words that are like positive injunctions: “Vote”, “Stand”, “Sprint.” I wanted to transliterate an energetic, vigorous, daring collection. We need that right now.
You’re showing in restrictive conditions, in which the majority of the international fashion community is unable to attend. How are you presenting your collection?
We are holding a show beneath the glass roof at La Samaritaine, a symbolic place within a prestigious location in Paris – on the top floor where the peacock frescoes are. This gigantic Art Nouveau painting, which was rediscovered and restored during renovations, speaks in a way of resilience, a desire to carry on … The physical experience of the show is different from the digital one. In-person guests will be surrounded by green screens, the kind used in filmmaking for integrating special effects. While the IRL audience is watching the show, online there will be a different, interactive environment for those who were unable to travel. While some guests will be able to direct the camera and interact with the show, creating a personalised perspective, the entire online audience will see a special set that features scenes from the Wim Wenders film “Wings of Desire,” a story about angels, whom liturgy tells us are sexless, but who choose to experience life thanks to the power of love.