A Look at Every Louis Vuitton Cruise Show, from Barcelona to Palm Springs

a group of women wearing hats and sunglasses — The History of the Louis Vuitton Cruise ShowCourtesy Louis Vuitton Press Office

Barcelona's Park Güell is one of the world's greatest public green spaces. It was only a matter of time until it became the set for a Louis Vuitton cruise collection. For the past eight years, the French house has staged its resort shows at increasingly extraordinary design destinations, from John Lautner’s Bob and Dolores Hope estate in Palm Springs in 2016 and I.M. Pei’s Miho Museum near Kyoto in 2018 to Louis Kahn's Salk Institute in San Diego in 2023 and Lake Maggiore's Isola Bella in Italy last year. It's been a signature flourish of women's artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière, who is marking his tenth anniversary at the label. The concept of the nomadic runway show, usually to parade the interstitial ready-to-wear collections, are now the norm in the luxury industry but it was Ghesquiere who arguably pioneered the practice of mounting these extravagant productions at real life locations of significant architectural renown. Güell was conceived by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who is best known for the Sagrada Familia church, and UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1984, 70 years after its opening. It's easy to see why. Over 42 acres, the park brings Gaudi's baroque, fantastical sensibility—seen all over the city in such buildings as Casa Batlló and the underrated Casa Vicens—down to earth, exalting the natural beauty of the landscape with modernist ingenuity. On Thursday, Ghesquière presented a resort reflection on "the country's passionate character," from flamenco hats, the "fervor" of Old Master colors, and Almodovar-esque dramatic silhouettes and nipped waists. The collection took full advantage of the venue, walking underneath the ceiling mosaics of the park's immediately recognizable Sala Hipóstila and its vast view from Carmel Hill of the eclectic local skyline, the treetops of Montjuïc, and, in the distance, the Mediterranean. Such are the visual pleasures of Barcelona, a city where, not incidentally, Vuitton has deep roots stretching nearly 100 years into the present. Georges Vuitton (the namesake's son) won a grand prize at the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition, which the maison helped organize, and today Vuitton employs some 1,800 artisans at leather goods workshops in the Catalunya region. And in August, the entire sailing world convenes around Port Vell for the start of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. The city and the company share not just history, says Pietro Beccari, chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, but common values "deeply anchored into a remarkable heritage and the passion for creativity." Here, look back at every Louis Vuitton cruise collection destination.