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Louis Vuitton took over The Frick Collection on Wednesday night, turning the museum’s historic halls into a grand, star-studded runway show.
Guests like Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, and Emma Stone were welcomed into the Frick’s newly restored interiors, which reopened last year after a renovation by Selldorf Architects and Beyer Blinder Belle. The first-floor galleries were given a temporary makeover for the night, as a parade of models weaved through custom-designed seating, sculptural drapery, and reconfigured rooms.
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The show’s finale in the Frick’s galleries.
For the Gilded Age mansion’s first time hosting a fashion show post-renovation, designer Marie-Anne Derville created bespoke seating tailored to each space. Deep green benches drew inspiration from the West Gallery’s existing wall coverings, while dark gray seating referenced the Reception Hall carpeting. In the Oval and East Galleries, gunmetal and aluminum chairs with cushions introduced an industrial twist.
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Anne Hathaway inside the Frick Collection.
The Garden Court also featured marble-like wooden benches, modeled after the museum’s stone seating, and was completed with a white floral installation. Meanwhile, music by Peaches, Tepr, and composer Daniel Pemberton shaped the presentation’s soundscape.
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Cate Blanchett and Zendaya.
Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections, is known to choose locations with architectural flair. The designer has previously staged collections at venues such as the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, the Miho Museum near Kyoto, and the Palais des Papes in Avignon.
The Frick, once the home of industrialist Henry Clay Frick and open to the public since 1935, holds one of the country’s top collections of European fine and decorative arts, with works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Velázquez. “Surrounded by masterpieces spanning from the Renaissance onward, we enter into conversation with a place where art, history, and beauty have long been preserved and celebrated,” Ghesquière said in a statement to WWD.
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The presentation also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between Louis Vuitton and the Frick. Along with the Cruise 2027 show, the fashion house will sponsor the Frick’s monthly free-admission “First Fridays” program through May 2027, back three major upcoming exhibitions, and fund a curatorial research position focused on artistic exchange between Europe and China in the eighteenth century.
Brea Cubit is an award-winning journalist who covers culture, entertainment, fashion, business, and more. When she’s not writing and editing, she enjoys listening to live music, binge-watching nostalgic TV, and shopping at artisan markets.