While the Croisette shimmered under a quieter-than-usual Cannes, where safe silks and demure dress codes ruled the red carpet, Louis Vuitton staged a cinematic coup of its own on the opposite coast. Forget the festival. The true fashion climax of this Riviera season unfolded not beneath the flashbulbs at Palais des Festivals—but within the shadowy, cathedral-like arches of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, where Nicolas Ghesquière transformed a historic stronghold into the house of high fantasy.
With the Resort 2026 presentation, Ghesquière didn’t simply show a collection—he conjured an era. Drawing from Arthurian myth, ecclesiastical motifs, glam rock, and medieval folklore, he sent out a procession of looks that felt as if they had been excavated from a dreamscape and dusted in stardust.
Cate Blanchett was vision incarnate, wrapped in an epaulet-adorned cape that could have belonged to a knight—or Ziggy Stardust. Sophie Turner commanded the stone corridors in a sharply tailored micro-suit with shoulders like armor and gemstone chains that glimmered like relics. Chloë Grace Moretz made a case for opulent eccentricity in a velvet blouse printed like bleeding ink and lacquered techno-trousers, while Saoirse Ronan floated ethereally in a whisper-thin slip, seemingly suspended from the air by little more than desire.
There were no gowns here to whisper “tasteful,” no demure silhouettes to beg for approval. Instead, Ghesquière leaned into the surreal, the baroque, the twisted—his word, not ours. It was a rebellion cloaked in couture, where the strange became sublime.
Even the accessories felt plucked from some enchanted archive: Alma bags embroidered with medieval flora, flat peep-toe boots more tapestry than footwear, and sculptural jewelry that would look as at home in Camelot as on a Cannes carpet—had Cannes dared to dream.
