Subscribe to the Show Notes newsletter for on-the-ground intel from fashion weeks and the wider world of men’s fashion.
The cosmic exchange of enjoying the beach is simple: You sit out in the blistering sun for as long as you can stand it, and then you reward yourself by diving into the cool, soothing water. Rinse and repeat to your heart’s desire.
On Tuesday, France’s hottest day on record, I had the somewhat agonizing experience of going to the beach and not being able to take a refreshing dip. That’s because the beach in question was actually a simulation constructed on a college campus in Paris, the site of Pharrell’s latest Louis Vuitton runway show. Indeed, on a leafy lawn at the Cité Internationale Universitaire, Team LV built an enormous tan box and filled it with seats, sand, and a wooshing, cascading wall made to look like a tidal wave. About the size of an IMAX screen, the wall churned out real water and emitted a fine mist, all of which subsequently pooled into the sand at the edge of the room. Attendants skimmed the resulting seafoam. On a 100-degree day, it felt like a mirage.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Getty Images
(Especially in the Pharrell era, the LV team are no strangers to building out unfathomable set pieces. For P’s first season, they shut down the Pont Neuf; last summer, they constructed a plaza-sized snakes and ladders board on the grounds of the soon-to-be-renovated Centre Pompidou.)
I didn’t dip my toes into the Louis Vuitton Ocean, but when I stood near it, I thought about all the Parisians who’ve been riding out the heatwave by jumping into the previously forbidden waters of Canal Saint-Martin, a now-tolerated practice following a recent mayoral sanction. (Since I arrived in the City of Light a few days ago, I’ve witnessed hundreds of local kids doing prefrontal-cortex-defying flips into the canal from its various pedestrian bridges. Gnarly!) So it was fitting that, at the show, one Parisian was brave enough to wade into water: Carine Roitfeld took off her heels and put her feet in.
Source:
www.gq.com
