PFW: Louis Vuitton closes with a political statement and genderless looks

Chanel went back to the timeless glamour of black and white Hollywood movies while Louis Vuitton embraced a gender neutral future on the last day of Paris fashion week Tuesday.

While Chanel looked back, Nicolas Ghesquiere's Louis Vuitton could not be more resolutely now, with the opening look a sweater emblazoned with "Vote", a rallying call for the liberal left in the upcoming US presidential election. But that was as conventionally political as it got, with the highly rated French designer insisting that his eyes were set firmly on the possibilities that gender fluid clothes might offer in the future.

Ghesquiere replaces gender assigned silhouettes

"What cut might dissolve the masculine and the feminine?" he asked. "What wardrobe might make them come together in one?"

Ghesquiere said he wanted to bring the world's richest luxury label on a "voyage of exploration... to discover and abolish the last [gender] frontiers." The bravura show was held in the long-closed La Samaritaine department store, which is due to reopen next year.

As always with Ghesquiere, it was all in the cut, with classic business and streetwear uniforms given surprising turns. But perhaps the most eye-catching thing about his spring-summer 2021 collection were the shoes, with a line of pointed clog stilettos sending Instagram into spasms.(AFP)

Credit: Louis Vuitton PE21