Bridging The Runway

For the first-ever Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2023 show, Nicolas Ghesquière went all out to impress.

- JOHN NG

For one day only, the historic double-decker Jamsugyo Bridge across the Han River in Seoul, South Korea, was closed in preparation for the traffic-stopping Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2023 womenswear presentation. The show venue was anything but decided by a coin toss.

"I'd been thinking about it for a while: South Korea's atmosphere suits me. Especially its cinema aesthetics," says Nicolas Ghesquière in a press statement. The show took place on the pedestrian-friendly lower deck of the bridge. "We're showing on one of the city's major arteries, the Jamsugyo Bridge, a double-level bridge that connects Seoul's North and South banks. The lower part, the promenade, is one the waterline and disappears when the Hangang River rises during the monsoon. It's a feat of civil engineering that creates the illusion of disappearance and reappearance as do the water jets that transform it into a giant fountain, like a kind of liquid rainbow. For Seoulites, it's a living monument."