In the midst of Paris Fashion Week and just a few days before Louis Vuitton’s upcoming fashion show, scheduled for October 6 at 6:30 p.m., Nicolas Ghesquière has received one of the most prestigious honors of his career. The creative director of the fashion house’s women’s collections was awarded the Legion of Honor during a ceremony at the Élysée Palace, where French President Emmanuel Macron personally presented him with the honor.
This moment comes after a career spanning more than thirty years and celebrates a journey that began long before Louis Vuitton. Ghesquière, in fact, took his first steps in fashion at Jean Paul Gaultier, before moving on to Balenciaga, where he initially worked on licensed lines. In 1997, he took the helm of the house’s ready-to-wear division and began to develop that distinctive aesthetic—marked by experimentation, sculptural silhouettes, and constant interplay between the past and the future—that would make him one of the most influential designers of his generation.
Sixteen years later, in 2013, he was approached by Louis Vuitton, and since then Ghesquière has established one of the longest-running creative directorship in contemporary fashion, continuing to bring together seemingly disparate worlds: futurism and romanticism, sportswear and couture construction, historical references and experimentation. Macron himself summed up this approach during the ceremony, citing among his inspirations “sailors, robots, flowers, shepherds, the punk scene, theater, and sportswear,” describing them as an inexhaustible source for his work, as reported by WWD.
The gathering at the Élysée Palace also spoke to the influence Ghesquière has come to wield in French fashion. The entire Arnault family was there, along with Catherine Deneuve, Jennifer Connelly, Léa Seydoux, Ana de Armas, Marina Foïs, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Felix of Stray Kids. Also in attendance were colleagues such as Phoebe Philo, Haider Ackermann, Julien Dossena, and Bouchra Jarrar, as well as longtime collaborators like Pat McGrath, Duffy, Liya Kebede, and Pierre Hardy.
The speech also included a reference to Brigitte Macron, whose wardrobe has become increasingly tied to Ghesquière’s designs in recent years. “I must say that you’ve found a wonderful ambassador in my wife,” Macron said during one of the many moments of camaraderie between the two that evening.
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