Under the twilight sky of Avignon, where whispers of ancient performance still linger in the stone, Louis Vuitton returned fashion to its most primal form: theatre. For Cruise 2026, Nicolas Ghesquière transformed the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes into a living stage – a reverent nod to France’s architectural legacy and a stirring ode to the performance of dressing.

This wasn’t just a runway show. It was a dramaturgy of silhouettes, light, and heritage. With British artist Es Devlin at his side, Ghesquière choreographed a scenographic narrative that honoured the Palais’ dual life – as fortress and cultural beacon. A single-line passerelle unfurled from the empty theatre stalls, guiding models through a choreography of shadows and luminous glow, revealing the textures of stone and memory alike. Here, every garment was a character, every step a line of dialogue in the House’s ongoing sartorial script.

The collection itself unfolded like a series of costume changes, shaped not for disguise but revelation. RUSSH cover star Julia Nobis opened the show, leading a procession of models donning cloaks, drapes, sculptural tailoring – each look evoking the emotional elasticity of fashion, how it can cast new roles, conjure mood, or alter destiny. Ghesquière revisited the wardrobe as artefact, potent with narrative force, reawakening the very essence of why we dress: not only to be seen, but to feel.

Audience members – Cate Blanchett, Hoyeon, Alicia Vikander, Brigitte Macron, and a constellation of creatives – were seated on red velvet banquettes that faced the empty audience. A role reversal. As though to say: in this theatre, we are all performers.

As the show climaxed, a luminous floor bloomed beneath the Cour d’Honneur stage, glowing with ghostly futurism beneath red scaffolding – a soft confrontation between past and possibility. It was poignant, not pompous. A ritual of material and memory. A celebration of dress as transformation, as performance, as poetry.

In this grand cultural laboratory, Louis Vuitton’s Cruise 2026 show was not merely a presentation. It was an invitation – to step into the story, to rehearse your own metamorphosis. Fashion, after all, is not what we wear. It’s who we dare to become.

Best looks from the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2026 show