The Pope’s Palace of Avignon, France, hosted its first fashion show in its 700-year history today, for Louis Vuitton. A UNESCO World Heritage site renowned for its frescoed interiors, the Palais de Papes is a preeminent example of Gothic architecture astride the Rhône. The fortress and the architectural monuments surrounding it, including the Petit Palais and the Romanesque Cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Doms, receive an average of 650,000 visitors a year.
For this year’s Cruise show, Vuitton enlisted the artist and stage designer Es Devlin, who’s worked with Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, and U2 in addition to the Super Bowl halftime show and Olympic ceremonies, to design a bespoke lighting experience for the runway.
Guests including Sophie Turner, Jaden Smith and French former First Lady Brigitte Macron took their seats on a raised stage with a lit floor, set up in an internal courtyard.
The Palais de Papes in Avignon, France.
As heraldic horns played, models walked a fluorescently lit runway circuit. They were followed by a spotlight that lit up eerily empty rows of theater seats upholstered in red velvet. Metal and wood materials were used, resembling church pews and city scaffolding at once. There was an element of the Medieval to the runway looks—a horse’s neigh was on the soundtrack— and the set design nodded to that, with tall speakers planted between seats like banners at a jousting tournament.
The fantasy is, of course, the brainchild of Nicolas Ghesquière, who has been the artistic director of women’s collections at Vuitton since 2013. Ghesquière made a habit of staging his cruise shows in some of the world’s most architecturally significant sites, including Barcelona’s Park Güel, designed by Antoni Gaudí (himself on the path to sainthood); I.M. Pei’s Miho Misueum, in Kyoto; and the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen.
WWD reported that Vuitton will be investing in the restoration and maintenance of the buildings after the production wraps, a trend we’ve seen elsewhere in high luxury: Fendi recently restored the Grotto of Diana, nestled in the gardens of Villa d’Este in Rome (not to be confused with the hotel of the same name on Lake Como), and Bvlgari has taken on several restoration projects in Rome, including the Spanish Steps and the Largo Argentina archaeological site.
We have a feeling it won’t be another 700 years before this Palais sees its next model sashay away.
Sean Santiago is ELLE Decor’s Deputy Editor, covering news, trends and talents in interior design, hospitality and travel, culture, and luxury shopping. Since starting his career at an interior design firm in 2011, he has gone on to cover the industry for Vogue, Architectural Digest, Sight Unseen, PIN-UP and Domino. He is the author of The Lonny Home (Weldon Owens, 2018), has produced scripted social content for brands including West Elm and Streeteasy, and is sometimes recognized on the street for his Instagram Reels series, #DanceToDecor
