Louis Vuitton Cruise 2025 Review

Nicolas Ghesquière is no stranger to going a little out there with his collections for Louis Vuitton. Throughout his 10-year tenure as the brand’s Creative Director, he’s been known to create the unexpected. But for Cruise 2025, his design prowess and penchant for experimenting with silhouettes, textures and classic house codes seemed to be on overdrive.

The result? An offering of looks that transcended cultures and time periods, introducing a new take on emerging trends and presenting what is, in my opinion, one of his best collections for Louis Vuitton to date.

Paying homage to the spirit of travel that’s at the heart of the brand, the fashion set (myself included) jetted off to Barcelona for the show. It was held at Park Güell, an architectural utopia created by Antoni Gaudí that’s now a public garden and one of the city’s most beloved tourist attractions.

I was lucky enough to be dressed by the brand for the show. I wore a full black and white look (more on fashion’s return to monochrome dressing later). I loved the maxi houndstooth patterned jacket, complete with rows of double statement silver buttons, along with a ruffle-trim tiered midi skirt, sleek black boots and, of course, finished with my favourite Capucines BB bag.

I hope you will allow me a small digression. It’s been approximately 7 years since I started working with Louis Vuitton and probably 20 since I started dreaming about it, so attending their cruise show in one of my favourite cities was a true dream come true. Before I go into more detail about the collection I wanted to show you the look I wore to the show. This is partially the closing look from the SS24 show, one of my all time favourite collections from Nicolas Ghesquière. I say partially because the blazer was the key piece from the look, but the rest of the styling was mine. A classic Capucines bag and high heeled boots from Louis Vuitton SS24 were my go to accessories.

But enough about me, there are so many other important things we need to discuss. Are you ready? In this post, I’m going to take you through my thoughts on the collection, the trends I think mean business and discuss what looks are my favourites.

Ghesquière’s Cruise 2025 offering for the house is a collection that simply can’t be confined to one theme. Instead, it’s an amalgamation of a whole host of ideas, spanning different cultures, decades and aesthetics to create a mash-up worthy of our attention. From traditional Spanish influences, and colours and shapes that pay homage to ‘80s party attire, to a unique take on fashion’s obsession with cowboy core, propelled by Vuitton’s own Pharrell Williams. You best giddy up because this collection has us fashion devotees in for one wild ride.

The wild (and wacky) west was well and truly out in full force for the opening few looks.

I think the most exciting takeaway from the show was the fusion of seemingly parallel phenomena to create looks which teetered on all things weird and wonderful. Bolero hats worn with wide, fluorescent-looking alien-style sunglasses. Think space aliens meet cowboys. Shall we say … Space Cowboys?

This went hand in hand with impeccable tailoring that felt very futuristic. Ghesquière is, of course, a master of this, with space-age-inspired silhouettes and details having become a signature of his designs for Louis Vuitton over the course of a decade.

The first look, a structured boxy woven suit dress with a contrast white stiff collar was minimalistic and modern, cementing Ghesquière’s prowess at perfecting simple silhouettes and reintroducing them in a fresh way. Add pointed-toe ankle boots, a Bolero hat worn tilted to the side (paying homage to styles traditionally associated with Spanish dancers) and alien-esque sunglasses and you’ve got a fusion of themes that straight away established this as a collection to take note of.

With the fashion trend cycle moving faster and faster, new trends are no longer exclusively sprouting up on runways each season.

Instead, they’re flourishing all the time on social media and from street style coverage. Designers are tasked with the increasingly difficult challenge of interpreting and reinventing these ideas in new and exciting ways that speak to a brand’s identity and customers. Ghesquière did an exceptional job at this with his Louis Vuitton Cruise 2025 collection.

He successfully breathed new vigour into a slew of established fashion trends. Take monochromatic simplicity, bubble hems, capri pants, fringe and mesh. It was an ambitious goal to take on so many of fashion’s current obsessions, and no surprise that the seasoned Ghesquière rose to the challenge.

It seems that since 2023’s Met Gala theme honouring the late Karl Lagerfeld caused a flood of black and white monochrome looks on the red carpet, this classic yet bold choice of colour palette is everywhere from runways to high street favourites. On geometric-print asymmetric-hem skirts and in polka-dot form, as well as a white handkerchief peeping from a coat’s top pocket in an elegant all-black ensemble. This new splattering of monochromatic styling has inspired me (not that I’ve ever been one to shy away from classically simple black and white looks, but you get what I mean).

Ah, bubble hems. Admittedly, a favourite trend of mine and I’ve been eagerly awaiting its return. A popular ‘80s style that made a return during the 2010s, largely pioneered by Ghesquière when he first arrived at LV. And now it seems that bubble hems are enjoying a comeback once again.

They popped up on the 2023 runways and have been seen a lot on social media, with fashion magazines closely reporting on their return. But for Cruise 2025 at Vuitton, Ghesquière took to injecting this trend with retro-inspired glamour. Electric blue off-the-shoulder dresses and asymmetric skirts featuring bubble hems made their way down the runway, along with an interesting tiered iteration – complete with all the pouff you’d expect from anything ‘80s. My new approach to party dressing, perhaps?

There was no skipping on the details either. My favourites include flamenco-style ruffles on capes and the hems of skirts and dresses to channel the collection’s Spanish influences, along with sophisticated draping and daring deep V-necklines, plus chunky buckled and tie belts that succeeded in seamlessly bringing together entire looks.