Louis Vuitton’s SS26 show was a celebration of ‘art de vivre’

Nicolas Ghesquière has always understood the power of dressing for no one but yourself. For Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, he transformed the former summer apartments of Anne of Austria — Queen of France and mother to Louis XIV — into the stage to celebrate “the ultimate luxury of dressing for oneself”.

Usually closed to the public, scenographer and designer Marie-Anne Derville reimagined the seventeenth-century rooms inside the Louvre. Her set design layered centuries of French artistry, featuring eighteenth-century cabinetwork alongside Art Deco furniture and contemporary installations, creating what the show notes described as “an immersion into French taste from past to present”.

Models floated through the gilded rooms sporting marble floors and frescoed ceilings while Cate Blanchett recited the lyrics of Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place” over music composed by Tanguy Destable — a soundtrack that perfectly captured the spirit of home. The collection opened with languid, sleepwear-inspired looks — silk robes, sets and soft tailoring that blurred the line between dressing up and dressing down. As the show unfolded, bolder colours appeared, as did plush outerwear, sculpted fur turbans and ruffled gowns watched on by a front row comprising the likes of Zendaya, Emma Stone and Sophie Turner.

Though the setting was palatial, Ghesquière’s “celebration of intimacy and the boundless freedom of the private sphere” spoke to something universal – the importance of dressing up with nowhere to go, because you never know who might arrive on your doorstep.