Louis Vuitton Unveils 2023 Cruise Collection in La Jolla

Louis Kahn met Louis Vuitton on Thursday, exactly at 7:07 p.m., as the sun set over the master architect's Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. It was there, a world-class incubator for human progress, that Vuitton's womenswear creative director Nicolas Ghesquière unspooled his 2023 cruise collection against the crystal clear backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, not too far away from Annabelle Selldorf's new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. "The combination of the sun rays and shimmering water bathes everything in a golden hue, transforming all it touches into gold," read the show notes. Volume, a major trend for spring, figured prominently here, in ornate coats, Alexis Carrington-style shoulder pads, oversize accessories and killer boots made for walking down a sensational runway, like the travertine promenade that cuts through Salk's laboratory cluster all the way towards the razor's edge of the ocean, a courtyard designed by another architecture great, Luis Barragán. No doubt the front row, star-studded as per usual with the likes of Léa Seydoux, Gemma Chan, Ana de Armas and Renate Reinsve, appreciated the cinematic qualities of the setting. In fact, the brutalist campus would look right at home in the films of David Cronenberg, the auteur behind Seydoux's upcoming dystopian thriller Crimes of the Future. After 62 years of medical innovation, Salk may be well prepared for its overdue Hollywood close-up.