Louis Vuitton's Fall 2021 Collection Is Peak Nicolas Ghesquière

The collection shows the designer at his best — plus, it introduces a new collaboration with Fornasetti.

Throughout the course of his career, Nicolas Ghesquière has established himself as a designer unafraid to experiment with new shapes and silhouettes, effortlessly blending historical references with futuristic ideas for clothes and accessories which tend to set trends rather than follow them. The Fall 2021 collection he designed for Louis Vuitton is destined to become an all-time highlight for him in this tradition.

Starting off from a Greco-Roman point of view — especially “contrapposto,” that classic technique of sculpting the body so that it twists off-axis — Ghesquière blends together the sharp lines of column motifs and gladiator sandals with the rounder shapes of oversized balloon sleeves and gathered tulle skirts. Pockets are set inside circular openings at the front of sweaters and the sweetness of more feminine dresses is cut by leather and stud detailing.

At the center of the collection is a collaboration with Fornasetti, the Italian design atelier perhaps best-known for its covetable home goods featuring hand-drawn imagery hearkening back to classic art. Ghesquière mined the Fornasetti archives to choose the motifs splashed across ready-to-wear and accessories alike — though, it’s likely the handbags will be what move fastest in stores. (The brand promises a broader capsule collection will follow at a later date.)

“With this collaboration, I wanted to use the pieces to evoke the continuing modernity of Fornasetti’s artistic world,” Ghesquière said, in a press release. “Fornasetti’s enduring body of work is the realisation of a remarkable hand-drawn technique and magical take on the world, and I am particularly drawn to the way Fornasetti re-explored and reworked the heritage of classicism and ancient Rome, adding new references to historical imagery.”

It all sits perfectly inside the Michelangelo and Daru Galleries in the Louvre, where the runway video was shot, but we’d bank it’ll look even better worked into the wardrobes of Louis Vuitton fans come fall.

See the complete Louis Vuitton Fall 2021 collection in the gallery below: