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Philippe Parreno and James Chinlund’s circus-like ‘monster flower’ brought all the fun (and the freakishness) of the fair to Louis Vuitton

- AMY SERAFIN

Even before the Squid Game star HoYeon Jung opened the Louis Vuitton womenswear show last October, walking the runway in a white skirt and crop top with oversized zippers, the spectacle had already begun. On arrival at the Louvre’s Cour Carrée, guests had discovered an enormous set with crimson red panels and spear-like ‘stamen’ emerging from the top.

Dubbed a ‘monster flower’, the set design was the work of French artist Philippe Parreno and Hollywood production designer James Chinlund. Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections, had met Parreno about two decades ago. Both had long wanted to work together, and they exchanged ideas informally over the years. Last spring, Ghesquière invited Parreno to design the set for a show. On the day they met, Parreno’s friend Chinlund, with whom he had already worked on two short films, was visiting Paris, and Parreno asked him to join them. ‘I thought it was a perfect coincidence,’ the artist says. ‘This project was born out of the three of us meeting.’