Nicolas Ghesquiere sure has a thing for museums! For the 2017 show, it was at Rio’s Niterói Museum, and for its recent Cruise 2018 show held just 2 days ago, he chose the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan. Smack in the middle surrounded by lush greenery, it wasn’t your typical traditional Japanese type of location either. Instead, its architecture was unexpectedly modern, with a long runway across the bridge leading to the museum’s steps, right into the museum building itself.

Image via Vogue Runway

The models strutted onto the runway with Kabuki-like makeup, ranging from simple clean angular, upward-slanting eyebrows that stopped halfway smack in the middle of the eye and super thick eye liner applied in such a manner that gave off the impression of a super squinty eye, while some had slightly more elaborate makeup akin to a subtle design on the forehead and cheekbones reminiscent of traditional Japanese masks. For the collection, Ghesquiere’s references to Japanese culture came across quite strongly, particularly in the samurai-inspired dresses, and of course the illustrated sequinned Japanese masks dresses, which was a collaboration between Vuitton and one of the biggest names in contemporary Japanese fashion, Kansai Yamamoto. 

In terms of the bags, I was a tad disappointed that there wasn’t a single Petite Malle in sight, but oh well, I shan’t dwell too much on that. There were a couple of new styles introduced, and one of which has a three-dimensional silhouette reminiscent of portable hat boxes that came in 2 sizes, while another seemed like a variation of the iconic Noé drawstring bag, except with a trunk-like clasp at its structured base compartment, and a more supple, petal-like opening. Existing styles like the Chain It Bag also made an appearance, and of course, the usual suspects: the Speedy, and the Twist. And of course, the show-stopping pieces were definitely those small bags by Yamamoto, with the eyes. While they certainly had the character of the upper half of Japanese masks, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the first one on the model strutting down the runway, was, “Hm, could this concept have been subconsciously inspired by the Fendi Monsters?” What do you think?

Images via WWD, unless otherwise stated