How Louis Vuitton’s Barcelona cruise show paid homage to Spain: held at Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell, the new collection features Matador-inspired hats, lace dresses and ‘monster boots’

May 24 , 2024

Designer Nicolas Ghesquière staged his Louis Vuitton cruise 2025 show in Barcelona, Spain, on May 23. Photo: EPA-EFE

Nicolas Ghesquière presented looks with sharp silhouettes and androgynous undertones with a Spanish flair for the French maison, featuring lace, ruffles and fringed ‘monster boots’ that swept the floor

A-listers like Jennifer Connelly, Sophie Turner and Jaden Smith turned up alongside award-winning director Ava DuVernay, who was taken by the collection that was shown at a Unesco World Heritage site

Soon after debuting his first collection for Louis Vuitton as womenswear artistic director more than 10 years ago, designer Nicolas Ghesquière staged the maison’s first-ever cruise show in the Principality of Monaco, on the French Riviera.

The Louis Vuitton cruise 2025 show was held in Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: EPA-EFE

Since then, Ghesquière has outdone himself year after year with cruise shows in jaw-dropping locations such as the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro, designed by celebrated Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer; the Bob and Dolores Hope Estate in Palm Springs, designed by modernist architect John Lautner; and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Diego.

If you’re sensing a theme here, you’re not wrong: Ghesquière is a design buff and loves nothing more than wowing his fans with his directional shows and their arresting backdrops.

For the unveiling of the cruise 2025 range, Ghesquière decamped to Barcelona, the Spanish city that this summer will host the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, the regatta that takes place in Barcelona’s Port Vell and along the city’s beaches.

A model wears a creation by Louis Vuitton during its cruise 2025 collection shown at Park Güell in Barcelona, Spain, on May 23. Photo: AP Photo

Staying true to his love of architectural landmarks that complement – but never overshadow – his designs, Ghesquière showed the collection in Park Güell, designed by perhaps Barcelona’s most famous citizen: architect Antoni Gaudí. Considered the father of Catalan Modernism, Gaudí is also the brains behind the city’s most famous landmark, the still unfinished Sagrada Familia church, which draws hordes of tourists every year.

With its colourful mosaics, whimsical sculptures and fairy tale-like landscape that all seamlessly blend with the surrounding nature, Park Güell, which was completed in 1914 and is a Unesco World Heritage site, provided a great counterpoint to the monochrome hues and streamlined shapes of the clothes.

While the show was meant as a homage to “the flourishing culture of Spain”, it was far from a literal nod. The collection was pure Vuitton and pure “Nicolas”, as fans of his work would put it.

A lace skirt in a look from the Louis Vuitton cruise 2025 show, held in Barcelona. Photo: EPA-EFE

Ghesquière is not a designer to compromise his vision to suit a theme or a source of inspiration. He simply redefines his codes season after season through different lenses – in this instance, Spain’s “opulent purity” and “passionate character”.