SHOWnews: A New Nicolas Ghesquière Biker, Beyoncé Premiers New Jeans, Another Rabanne World

Louis Vuitton and NIcolas Ghesquière Present The LV BIKER

The anniversary year of 2024 proved fruitful for Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director and soothsayer of a decade at the women's wing of Louis Vuitton. A fundamental heartbeat for atavistic sensations of travel power the maison. In turn, Ghesquière catalyses a dialogue between flight and fantasy at the fulcrum of both transient states, desire. Ghesquière’s desire state has redefined ordinary-seeming objects (a bag, a shoe, a midi skirt) into extraordinarily covetable keepsakes — the A/W 14 Petite Malle, A/W 21’s Patti Wedge, those grey bouclé trousers from Barcelona Cruise 25 someone wants badly. As Louis Vuitton and Ghesquière chart a new path, travelling in distinctive style with their LV BIKER bag, desire achieves redefinition at the maison for flight and fantasy.

The LV BIKER bag juxtaposes the past informing the present. Perhaps its ancestor nestled in the nook of Michelle Laff’s arm at Nicolas Ghesquière’s show four-plus years ago. Perhaps not. Reconfigured using the rigour a classic biker jacket requires to construct (as we know, biker jackets are a Ghesquière signature) leaves the LV BIKER as a modern definition of structured, elegant strength. No wonder Mica Argañaraz opened S/S 25 with versatile aspects of lightness and rich density in a single show look.

Modularity is as key to travel as it is the new LV carryall. Foldable leather rearranges potential, as does the handlework providing nimble elements for an effortless life on the go.

Three sizes. Multiple colourways. A panorama of flexibility for occasions that illustrate taste for any situation, leaves the LV BIKER in firm hands for anyone with the capacity to travel into imaginative states of desire. Or anywhere else for that matter.

The LV BIKER is available from 22 February in Louis Vuitton stores.

Beyoncé And Levi’s Hit The Corner Pocket

While Dsquared2 and Diesel reaffirmed powerhouse denim foundations (or what can come from denim blueprints) in Milan this past week, Beyoncé and Levi’s serve up a reminder on who made workwear fashionable to begin with. Our pop culture titans return with their second chapter of the ‘REIIMAGINE’ renaissance. Longtime Beyoncé filmmaker Melina Matsoukas moves the setting from Laundrette to Pool Hall. Beyoncé and Matsoukas reconceptualised a pantsless Nick Kamen circa 1985, so remixing photographer Mario Sorrenti (crazy right?!?!), The Clash and a 1991 bet over denim should be easy.

Lyrics from the Beyoncé x Post Malone song ‘Levii’s Jeans’ provide a clue to their update:

Sendin' me super shots/shots

I'm lookin' super hot/I'm hot

I got the perfect pose/she snappin'

Now we see how to win a high-stakes pool game against Timothy Olyphant in Levi’s Ribcage wide leg jeans and that braided rhinestone vest. Pool Hall continues Levi’s tradition of blending old into new, effortlessly merging Beyoncé’s superpower — lately her Cowboy Carter, Grammy-winning energy — with the iconic heritage proven effective since 1873.

‘There isn’t another wardrobe piece that evokes comfort, modern elegance, classic Americana attire and nostalgia the way denim does. When I think of all those things, I think of Levi’s. For the second chapter in our collaboration we had even more fun in reimagining the denim on denim narrative, through the lens of a woman, who can be sexy, bold and a fierce competitor, all at once. We wanted to celebrate the duality of grace and power.’

• Beyoncé

They’ll love you down to the bone.

Every KISS Begins With Dsquared2

Buried in the Dsquared2 A/W 25 hysteria of Doechii, Naomi Campbell, Brigitte Nielsen, Tyson Beckford and JT was their KISS collaboration. Dean and Dan Caten’s 30-year anniversary blow out left no meal untouched. However in doing so, maybe the stunts, concerts and Cher cosplay obscured those KISS doppelganger models, who sauntered out demurely in formalwear (the Dsquared2 way obviously) near show’s end. Dean and Dan’s own anniversary moment culled inspiration from a KISS tour 50 years prior, updating Alive! 1975 merchandise via fringe-sleeved tees and tie-dye tanks.

Enter model Noah L. Johnson, writhing on the hood of a Cadillac, inciting a crowd at full boil already to inhale the timeless appeal of rock’s glam gods (KISS) gone hot n’ cool (Dsquared2). Adds another angle to Doechii’s ‘Alter Ego’ doesn’t it?

The Rabanne World For Immaterial Girls

Rabanne never shouts to be understood. Since S/S 14, Julien Dossena has suggested a relatively peaceful revolution. His fabrications find splendour, in his words, from ‘an effortless pull between the everyday and the exquisite.’ In this new season, prototypical lavender fields from the South of France blur into a meridian boundary between sky and sea. As ripples too lavender to be true undulate beneath Rabanne assemblage bags, glamour is observed in unexpected, simple ways.

A parachute blouson on Mica Argañaraz embraces casual yet elevated holiday charm that ushers in chambray summer. Decadence oscillates the senses like a warm breeze in Monaco, as a rugby top with silver leaf jacquard invites gentle playfulness whilst embroiderers whisper ‘handle us with care.’ Ease and intrigue are the Rabanne way. Dossena’s values melt seamlessly into the South of France’s native sense of the handcraft.

Radicality the Rabanne way is a public secret. Subtleties with guipure foil and matelassé tank tops suggest future leanings with a leisurely approach. Dossena tends to get there at a slow, steady pace. Rabanne’s S/S 25 material precision floats in a haze of preppy psychedelia, an artisanal fever dream. The point of arrival is succinct brilliance across sand, sea and silhouettes.

Raw Power Provokes Agency This Spring

Agent Provocateur’s new collection, Raw Power, awakens your attention with energy that slithers and kinks that crackle in every patent leather fold. Their S/S 25 celebrates sexuality laid raw and a primitive force of will — the will of refusal — that cannot be subdued. Conceived in mutual consent by photographer Charlotte Wales and creative director Sarah Shotton, the collection is an unabashed second skin that negotiates every passionate utterance. Each piece is an extension of desires designed to enhance the allure within every woman, be they crystal coquettish in silk and French lace, or switching roles to titillate in black PVC. Agent Provocateur commands you to own your selves. Hand-finished embroideries onto swimwear are a sensual exercise to polish off freedoms.

‘An essence of rebellion, sex and performance. It's a collection for the unapologetic frontwoman, a lioness, a matriarch, a sex goddess. She is whoever she wants to be, and she is always in charge of her own making. This campaign, shot by the brilliant Charlotte Wales, is our love letter to women everywhere, who harness their confidence, their sensuality, their raw power.’

• Sarah Shotton, Agent Provocateur creative director

Come spring, your safe word is Agent Provocateur.

Big Business At H&M Studio

An element of the working girl popped up in two notable S/S 25 collections. While we don’t mean work it girl, we do love that attitude. No, we mean Working Girl from 1988, the Melanie Griffith classic. Armani’s easy elegance, draped over a soft 80s power suited shoulder dusted a Bottega Veneta S/S 25 fantasy. Then All-In went well, all in on their literal suggestion for how an 80s working woman closes happy hour.

H&M Studio maintains a nostalgia for then, powered for now as they too suggest a woman comfortable closing deals as she soaks in the sunlight while working from wherever. Their S/S 25 collection boldly declares power, a real 1980s characteristic, and versatility, also 80s in a Donna Karan/7 easy pieces fashion sense, is indeed 2025. Who works at the same job for fifteen years anymore? H&M Studio blends the metropolis with the poolside, accentuated by sharp tailoring that nods to a Sigourney Weaver-as-Katharine Parker style.

A corporate woman venerated by seeing the future — sporty, laid-back, detailed but not overwrought. This collection suggests someone in total possession of her day, from boardrooms to cocktails, work to play, navigating an easy line between strength and beauty living in 2025.