Former Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière, who is now the head designer at luxurious Parisian label Louis Vuitton, has commented that he never designs to “make a big statement” and often he just gets lucky with his pieces. He said that he never expects to create his own fashion revolution with his items:
“You never do things thinking you will make a big statement. It just happens sometimes and you are lucky. You don’t think you will do a revolution. At the beginning, you are very honest with your idea and you want to seduce.” He adds that his focus is primarily on creating something fresh for a woman’s wardrobe, while also having his own clear artistic vision: “It’s more about building a vision with time, and to dig and go deep into a woman’s wardrobe. Yes, you do like a collection with a hint of something, with a proposition, but at the same time, what I want to see is for the longer term.”
When beginning at Louis Vuitton, Nicolas opted to design pieces he felt would stand the test of time and would be regarded as future classics – investment items that always look stylish. He explained his approach to designing for the label:
“My thought was that when we look at things that are considered ‘Grande Classiques,’ as we say in French — iconic classics that almost everyone wants — we sometimes forget that they were new one day.”
He decided to create pieces that might stand out currently, but in time would be seen as standard, and he wanted to challenge himself to see if he could create these kind of timeless pieces: “They were totally innovative and might sometimes be shocking to some people, but with time, they become classics. Every item doesn’t become that but the challenge for the designer is to look for those things that are so consistent that they can stand [the test of] time even if they are surprising and new at the beginning. That was the concept.”
