Dresses with necklines that look like oversized airplane neck pillows. Belts subverted and reappropriated on jackets and trouser legs. Little flippy leather dresses with massive chain shoulders. These were the items on display at the Louis Vuitton Carnival which was its spring 2023 presentation. There, utilitarian details became highly ornamental and the Louvre transformed into a monster flower that also resembled a cherry-red circus tent designed by the French contemporary artist Philippe Parreno and decorator James Chinlund.

For Spring 2023, creative director Nicolas Ghesquière zoomed in on the smallest functional details and oversized them for maximum impact. Teeny dresses drowned in large zippers, curvy line patterns mixed with giant buttons, bows became larger than life, and giant waist cinchers flanked leather babydoll dresses.

Overall, there were different layers and levels of humor in the collection. A Victorian dollhouse was carried around like a bag. Harnesses dripped from dresses with loose, undone waistbands in giant sizes. And the zippers on graphic outerwear, pants and sweaters exceeded the size of the boldest and biggest jewels.

Ghesquière defined the Louis Vuitton aesthetic with a firm grip on novelty and changeability, but Spring 2023 felt more playful in ways we haven’t seen from the brand before. The roots and craftsmanship of Louis Vuitton’s typical collection were all there, seen through the lush patchwork leathers, cargo pockets done in immaculate form, mermaid blue textured pants and tiger print coats.

But Ghesquière also took trompe-l’oeil to another level, with embroideries that looked like macro versions of tweed. The design team used 3D scanners to transfer images of fabric to computers and magnify them to 500%, to highlight every thread and all of its texture. A blouse closure from Ghesquière’s second collection has been enlarged and transformed into an entire dress. “The focus is on identifiers of femininity,” the designer said in a statement. “I took a lot of details from previous collections and enhanced them; I deliberately showed it because creativity is circular, it loops…like Philippe’s arrangement of the decor: a luminous circle around this strange flower.

The excess of it all felt like a break (or refresher) from the sometimes stiff universe of Louis Vuitton. “What could outrageous femininity be – the idea of ​​outrage in femininity, the clichés of ultra-femininity – seen stylistically through a ‘feminine gaze,'” Ghesquière asked in a statement. “The way to zoom in on the details of a garment that women are interested in because they know them so well. You could say that I was approaching hyper-femininity in its most literal sense. Underlined it. Changed the game of proportions, found a new balance in scale.

The collection seemed hyper-realistic in its distorted proportions, as it also revealed a sense of mixed reality. We’re in a time where the lines are constantly blurred between real life and our phones, even at runway shows happening during fashion month – pinching our screens to zoom in for a closer look, or peeking through other people’s screens. Ghesquière perfectly cemented a collection to end fashion month – with a kind of dark humor about voyeurism and how it can be turned into a fleeting fashion moment that always seems coveted.