A series of columns, descending on the elegant angle of an escalator, traversing the horizontal of the catwalk and ascending
again, formed the fundamental structure of the spring/summer 2013 presentation. Each look was a strict rectangle when
considered from the perspective of an architect’s elevation, interrupted on the horizontal at three levels, with the sleeve heads
offering the only deviation from the straight and narrow. This strict template was inspired in part by the conceptual artist Daniel
Buren and his work Les Deux Plateaux, a series of 260 columns of three different heights arranged in a grid within the great
courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris.
It was a marked contrast to the previous season, with the romantic making way for the mathematical. There were still flowers
- although, silhouetted and abstracted, they were not immediately recognisable as such. But for the most part, decoration
came in the form of strict checkerboard grids. This was the first ever Louis Vuitton collection where the monogram was
nowhere to be seen; instead, the damier pattern provided the house’s signature. Squares in differing colours and textures and
at varying scales gave the clothes and accessories a starkly graphic quality.
For all its crisp, clean lines and bold blankness, the collection still included the labour-intensive embellishments for which Louis
Vuitton is famous. The tiniest sequins ever produced were arranged by the thousand to create fluid metallic surfaces, while
slightly larger paillettes were stacked four-deep and stitched in precise grids to create geometric relief textures. ‘Tuffetage’, a
technique taken from carpet-making, was embroidered on cloth and leather to create a flock-like effect. Surfaces were
decorated with goose feathers, applied with painstaking care to produce a perfectly even texture and trimmed to create
crisp-edged squares.
Making such extreme simplicity work requires extreme precision. When every seam and every line is so conspicuous, every
detail so architectural in its rigour, dimensions have to be exact to a fraction of a millimetre. Checks had to be matched
uniformly on the seams, and allowances made for the way embellishments slightly altered the surface area of the fabrics they
covered to ensure a perfectly regular grid. Woven leather underwent a special pressing process to ensure a completely flat,
even surface.
A fundamental duality underpinned the collection: between the two colours of each grid; between shiny and matt textures;
between presence and absence, in the case of the dresses with the cut-out squares. The collection was presented on models
in pairs to reinforce these oppositions. Artistic director Marc Jacobs had the image of two very different French icons of the
1960s, Françoise Hardy and Jane Birkin, in mind when creating the collection: Hardy always very covered up, Birkin always
revealing plenty of flesh, but both always in long, simple clothes.
The rectilinear discipline extended to the bags and shoes. The Envelope and the Flat already had the requisite right angles,
while the Speedy was re-engineered in square and cubic forms. The shoes were long and straight, the bow on the upper
forming a bold geometric, while the heel was a precise metal triangle.
The show was presented on a site-specific installation created by Daniel Buren in collaboration with Louis Vuitton. A catwalk
of vast squares of glass in yellow and white, with four escalators and the roof of the tent perforated with a random scattering
of circles. It was only fitting that a collection inspired by one of Buren’s installations should be presented on a set designed by
him.
More information about Louis Vuitton: http://www.louisvuitton.es