The time is now
Nicolas Ghesquière used to have a favourite trick for deflecting journalists when they started asking him which celebrity he’d most like to dress. “Princess Leia!” he’d answer. This memory, of a conversation we had in 2007, shoots through my mind as he talks about his admiration for Lupita Nyong’o. “Lupita!” Ghesquière exclaims, leaning forward, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “She’s very special to me, because we dressed her for Star Wars: The Force Awakens , and, you know, for me, anyone related to StarWars …”
A window of opportunity to look into the life of one of the brightest designers in the fashion galaxy doesn’t come around that often. As artistic director of women’s collections at Louis Vuitton, Ghesquière is at the apex of success in luxury fashion. It is a week after his fabulous, time-traversing, /1970s-inflected spring/ summer ’20 show (a production backdropped by a cinema-screen-sized, emotional music video by trans artist Sophie), and a few days before he is due to fly to New York to join Steven Meisel and Edward Enninful on set to photograph Nyong’o for her UK cover story.
